Matthew Goodwin’s latest book, Values, Voice and Virtue has been met with a deluge of negative reviews after the controversial academic blamed the new left-leaning elite for shaping modern British politics.
After 13 years of Conservative rule, Goodwin argued that it is in fact those of a left-wing persuasion who are to blame for Brexit and the current state of the nation.
He argues that British politics has been shaped by a “new elite” that is progressive, pro-migration, obsessed with diversity and out of touch with the values of much of Britain.
Unlike upper-class aristocrats and landowners of old, Goodwin charges that a “new elite” has been created, bound by their Oxbridge or Russell Group university education, cultural power and control of key public institutions such as the BBC.
The book has been widely criticised on social media, with Mic Wright posting this brutal analysis:
Rhondda Bryant helpfully reminded listeners of the ‘disastrous’ Tory policies over the last 13 years on LBC:
While others, such as Gerry Hassan in The National and Oliver Eagleton in The New Statesman, have pointed out that Goodwin has gone from an “observer to a participant” after previously documenting the emergence of right-wing populism.
As Hassan notes, it “suits his validation of right-wing populism to prioritise “culture war” issues and charge that an out-of-touch liberal elite does not care about working-class or north-of-England concerns”.
On Amazon, reviews of the book have also been a mixed bag.
One person humorously compared it to an article published in 2016 by the satirical website Daily Mash entitled ‘Liberal elite’ is anyone who has voluntarily read a book’.
“This book is an expanded version of that article, but apparently is not intended to be satirical”, he said.
R. Scott called it a “rehash of Spiked Online tropes”, while H Root called it “ignorant”.
Reaction on social media has also been pretty fierce!
Here’s what people had to say:
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