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Matthew Goodwin.....

I'm vaguely familiar with his name but couldn't say I was familiar with what he was saying. Just looked up his Twitter feed and he's an active proponent of the whole "dismissing justified concerns about immigration just makes people vote for fascists" / "identity politics" nonsense so he can fuck off. Don't really care if he was sound at one point.
I'm not really aware of his twitter stuff but his books are definitely worth reading. Not totally correct but there is a worthwhile stuff both in terms of data and arguments.
 
Just finished the Pelican reader he published with Roger Eatwell - National Populism: The Revolt Against Liberal Democracy

It's not without issues. Politically for all their criticisms of liberalism the book remains wedded to a liberal politics and he understanding of class is weak. There is also probably too much focus on polling data and compared to his and Fords book on UKIP the data presented is not as strong (although to be fair this is a Pelican primer covering a broad political movement rather than book concentrating on a single example).

That said it is certainly worth reading for anyone interested in the topic. It is written in a very easy engaging style but covers quite a lot of ground. The case they make for the differentiation of national populism from fascism is strong enough that it deserves consideration. Neither their tracing the rise of national populism back before 2008 nor the distinction between cultural and ethnic nationalism is especially new but considering the number of people who still seem completely ignorant of these factors their inclusion is required. And the theory they raise that (national) populism is inevitable in a liberal democracy, and that it is the post-war years that were unusual rather than the present situation has a lot to recommend it*. I'd disagree with some aspects of the summaries of the four D's - distrust, destruction, deprivation and de-alignment - they give as the driving forces but overall as a general introductory text I certainly recommend it.


*On this point they mention the work of Margaret Canovan, anyone familiar with her stuff? chilango, Smokeandsteam, butchersapron danny la rouge
 
Just finished the Pelican reader he published with Roger Eatwell - National Populism: The Revolt Against Liberal Democracy

It's not without issues. Politically for all their criticisms of liberalism the book remains wedded to a liberal politics and he understanding of class is weak. There is also probably too much focus on polling data and compared to his and Fords book on UKIP the data presented is not as strong (although to be fair this is a Pelican primer covering a broad political movement rather than book concentrating on a single example).

That said it is certainly worth reading for anyone interested in the topic. It is written in a very easy engaging style but covers quite a lot of ground. The case they make for the differentiation of national populism from fascism is strong enough that it deserves consideration. Neither their tracing the rise of national populism back before 2008 nor the distinction between cultural and ethnic nationalism is especially new but considering the number of people who still seem completely ignorant of these factors their inclusion is required. And the theory they raise that (national) populism is inevitable in a liberal democracy, and that it is the post-war years that were unusual rather than the present situation has a lot to recommend it*. I'd disagree with some aspects of the summaries of the four D's - distrust, destruction, deprivation and de-alignment - they give as the driving forces but overall as a general introductory text I certainly recommend it.


*On this point they mention the work of Margaret Canovan, anyone familiar with her stuff? chilango, Smokeandsteam, butchersapron danny la rouge
She's a big arendtian, don't suppose more than a couple of people here have heard of her let alone read her
 
Not me, sorry.

I also recommend National Populism, btw.

(And, in similar vein, the Rise of the Right, by Winlow, Hall & Treadwell).

I’m not familiar with Canovan either. But Danny is right about the Winlow, Hall & Treadwell book. Essential ethnographic research.

I’d also add Jean Claude Michéa ‘Realm of Lesser Evil’ to the list.
 
(And, in similar vein, the Rise of the Right, by Winlow, Hall & Treadwell).
Just started this but saw a great couple of quotes that while made in the context of the 2008 GFC are applicable across a whole range of avenues
Ideological commitment was signified as an anachronism, a defat in critical thinking, an unhealthy liking for universal truths and an unwanted product of a disregard for the 'nuances and complexities' uncovered by empirical evidence
Ideological commitments had been discarded, their place taken by a commitment to .... growing the country's mainly service-based GDP
 
On TV he doesn’t offer much nuance. He was blabbing on today again about how ‘the left’ won’t ‘allow’ ordinary people to raise fears about immigration, as if the UK has talked about much else this decade.

How could anyone on the left not object to the terms of the asylum/immigration debate as proposed by the right and the media? There has always been a precarcity debate the left would have, but that’s not been the one on offer.

Thing is, the further left you go, you're coming back round to the right. Jezza has repeatedly said that he blames EU migrants for nicking all the jobs. He also blames them for low wages and homelessness.

(He probably blames them double if they're Jewish)

This is why I rarely do FB these days, it's more or less an echo chamber. It's either Corbynistas shitting on anyone who doesn't believe Jezza is the Messiah, or Brexiteers doing the same with Nigel.

I have no political affiliation. I will back any MP whose policy/policies I agree with, doesn't matter what party they represent. My MP is Grieve and he has my unwavering support for his endeavours trying to stop Boris from destroying what little remains of our democracy.

As I've said before, Corbynistas can't understand why I, as someone reliant on the DWP for every single penny I have to subsist on, aren't a fully paid up member of Momentum (because I'm not, I therefore must be a Tory and lying about being disabled). They really, REALLY make me want to do unspeakable things…
 
So you've taken two quotes from my post, completely out of context, and concluded I'm a Tory…? I therefore must conclude that you are a JC fan.
Yeah, of the candidates who have a sniff, I prefer JC.

Why would you support a Tory for one of his stances while ignoring the many, many stances he has that will fuck you and many other people over.

Have you seen his voting record?
 
Thing is, the further left you go, you're coming back round to the right. Jezza has repeatedly said that he blames EU migrants for nicking all the jobs. He also blames them for low wages and homelessness.

That's not true. UK cannot and must not close borders to EU workers, says Corbyn.

Goodwin's error is to treat the exploitation of immigration to undermine the working class (all of it, not just the white part) as separate from the economic issues he correctly identifies. His solution is a part of the problem. Undocumented migrants have no recourse to the law and are easily exploited by landlords, employers and other criminals. Migrants with conditional status and no recourse to public funds are not much better off. Making life more difficult and precarious for migrants takes the floor out from under labour's feet.

This can't be solved with harsher border enforcement and it can't be solved by liberals who refuse to understand power. Even EU freedom of movement puts a three months total time limit on access to unemployment benefits. The posted workers directive was a disaster for skilled manual workers in high wage member states. It was finally reformed last year, afters years of campaigning by the left. Revised Posted Workers Directive Enters into Force.
 
Thing is, the further left you go, you're coming back round to the right. Jezza has repeatedly said that he blames EU migrants for nicking all the jobs. He also blames them for low wages and homelessness.

(He probably blames them double if they're Jewish)

This is why I rarely do FB these days, it's more or less an echo chamber. It's either Corbynistas shitting on anyone who doesn't believe Jezza is the Messiah, or Brexiteers doing the same with Nigel.

I have no political affiliation. I will back any MP whose policy/policies I agree with, doesn't matter what party they represent. My MP is Grieve and he has my unwavering support for his endeavours trying to stop Boris from destroying what little remains of our democracy.

As I've said before, Corbynistas can't understand why I, as someone reliant on the DWP for every single penny I have to subsist on, aren't a fully paid up member of Momentum (because I'm not, I therefore must be a Tory and lying about being disabled). They really, REALLY make me want to do unspeakable things…
No Jezza hasn’t said anything of the sort even once, let alone repeatedly. I mind one time Jezza said businesses should build factories and that in Britain rather than abroad and all of liberal Twitter went off on one cause they thought he had told migrant workers to fuck off. I actually think “British workers shouldn’t actually expect to get a job anytime soon” would be an acceptable slogan for most of our lefties these days.
 
Getting in the 20s (k) is more than many can dream of. So fuck off and go elsewhere. I speak for the majority if average wage is still around 22k. Therefore you ARE the fucking problem. Terribly vulgar of me though.
 
Does he get up earlier than me. Does he work harder than me. Is he cleverer than me, better than me or have more morality than me? NO. So why the fuck are you complaining, and why the fuck do you bother me when you have everything I/we don't?
 
I 'invested wisely', you get several thousand k in benefits which I pay for (which makes me better than you), your crazy to seek an alternative to the same old shit?
 
You've got your obscenely wealthy fuckers, then a 10 % or so, that are supposedly the middle: then the majority who more or less struggle. See how they play that? The establishment, their selfish guardians, and the rest of us who can fuck off, who never 'made it' by whatever arbitrary standard that consigns you to your place and fucks the rest hard.

And don't tell me you deserve it you fucking dimwit.
 
Envy politics? No you fuckers take it all at OUR expense. Yes the system is set up to placate you, the (10%), people work, they buy, you aren't better and get to cut us away piece by piece because you have gotten ahead under said system. You are totally wrong and I will stand by that.
 
Goodwin's error is to treat the exploitation of immigration to undermine the working class (all of it, not just the white part) as separate from the economic issues he correctly identifies.
Where are you getting this?

It has been some years since I read Revolt of the Right but I don't recall this argument there and it's not really an accurate summary the thesis Eatwell and Goodwin develop in National Populism, which is mostly concerned with identifying the factors driving the rise of national populism. In the latter, while Eatwell and Goodwin contend that immigration (or at least attitudes to immigration) is a factor in the rise of national populism cultural issues are as important economic (indeed with the two being linked). On the economic driver - what they call deprivation - they argue that relative and perceived deprivation are as important as absolute deprivation, pointing out that those with the absolute least tend to have been, and remain, non-voters while those attracted to national populism tend to be those that are slightly higher on the ladder but who have seen a contraction in their quality of life.
They do seem to be supportive of stronger immigration controls, a position that I think is somewhat naive, in practice more stringent controls are both racist and make conditions even worse for those migrants which already have the least, but they are correct that such views have strong support throughout the populace.
 
Jezza has repeatedly said that he blames EU migrants for nicking all the jobs. He also blames them for low wages and homelessness.

Can we have a couple of examples of him doing this please? I'm no Corbyn fan but that reeks of bullshit to me.
 
So you've taken two quotes from my post, completely out of context, and concluded I'm a Tory…? I therefore must conclude that you are a JC fan.

I'm not a Tory, I just vote for them and agree with them on everything.

Post-tribal, post-ideological. You're just so much more grown up and sensible than the rabble.
 
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