The Road to Somewhere: The Populist Revolt and the Future of Politics by David Goodhart – review
Four years ago, I was asked to take part in an inquiry by the BBC Trust into whether the corporation’s output reflected the breadth of opinion in the UK. “So much of the public conversation emanates from London, so that leads to a more tolerant, liberal approach to life. If you don’t subscribe to that and you live in Gloucestershire, you may feel your views are not being represented. It pertains to all aspects of public life, not just the BBC,” the report quoted me as saying.
The issue was not leftwing bias (there are more big names on TV and radio with a Conservative-leaning background than Labour); rather, it was social. Too many BBC staffers thought like me. Boy, did they take that advice on board (and many people were pointing to the same problem). Now barely an edition of Question Time goes by without Nigel Farage gracing us with his presence; rarely does one get through a news programme without hearing someone complaining about immigrants.
David Goodhart has been warning of the perils of “double liberalism” for a long time. Britain, he argues, has since peak Blair been strangled by a politics of social liberalism (gay marriage and multiculturalism) and economic liberalism (let the markets rip and let any dodgy foreigner buy our companies) that’s at variance with the views of the “real” British public.
Related: Why the left is wrong about immigration | David Goodhart
At the heart of this malaise, he contends, has been the opening of our borders, particularly to central and eastern Europe. It was only a matter of time before new groupings would form to challenge the status quo: “Since the turn of the century, western politics has had to make room for a new set of voices preoccupied with national borders and pace of change, appealing to people who feel displaced by a more open, ethnically fluid, graduate-favouring economy and society, designed by and for the new elites.” The backlash, he says, came earlier than he expected. Brexit, followed by Trump, followed possibly by Le Pen and who knows what other delights await us.
Goodhart constructs his argument around the “anywheres” and the “somewheres”. The former are the metropolitan, well-travelled, better-educated “elite”; the latter are the hardier folk from the provinces who have never lost their sense of place or identity, whose “decent” concerns have been ignored.
Much of the analysis is not dissimilar to that of Theresa May and her advisers; the referendum result did – no matter which way one voted – cast a spotlight on a societal schism that is not unique to Britain but is no less urgent for it. The author is right to point out an unbalanced economy skewed towards the financial services; an overdependence on the capital city; an education system that has de-prioritised vocational and nonacademic skills (be they technical or creative), and an echo chamber of a political debate “akin to a non-partisan technocracy”. The demise of the last lot brought to an end the hegemony of a political class of Cameroons, Lib Dems and Blairites who were effortlessly comfortable in one another’s company.
If London is such an awful place to live and work, why do so many people flock to it from around the world?
The incumbents are very different. In my day-job dealings with the prime minister’s team, I see a group of earnest and not ostentatious people trying to grapple with the future identity for a post-EU Britain. (I won’t dwell here on the perils of a hard Brexit or even Brexit at all.) They are searching for ways of reviving post-industrial towns of the north, boosting apprenticeships and addressing some very real concerns about the “gig” economy. Whether they find the answers is one thing, but I believe their intentions to be honourable.
The problem – for all those who wish to redraw the social map of Britain, whether from the right or left – is what actually to do. This is where Goodhart’s book falls short. The more he struggles for answers, the more he finds solace in rhetoric. He indulges himself in a lament about London. The city, for sure, has a desperate housing shortage; inequality is rife; public services are under severe strain; oligarchs have bought up swaths of property that lie empty. But if it is such an awful place to live and work, why do so many people flock to it from around the world, and not just the wealthy? Why is it such a magnet for digital entrepreneurs and creatives, who now make up a tenth of the nation’s workforce? Which sectors will be future-proofed against automation?
Nostalgia doesn’t create jobs, and yet there is no shortage of it here. “Wanting to turn the clock back is not a foolish instinct for those who feel the non-material aspects of life really were better in the past,” Goodhart writes. Personally I’m not a great fan of the cultural or gastronomic mores of the 1950s or 70s, but everyone to their taste. He shares the PM’s assessment that economic growth is no longer the holy grail: “People are prepared to trade economic gain for political agency and the prospect of a society that takes them more seriously.” He may be correct in these assessments, but where does it get you? Last time I looked, lower GDP doesn’t enhance civic cohesion.
The Brexiters are experts at defining what they don’t like – nobody can explain in practical terms their New Jerusalem. Is it a Singapore-style low-tax haven (but that depends on a global inflow of talent) or is it bread and dripping and the sun setting over cricket pitches (that’s unfair to John Major, who is a rare politician, warning about the cul-de-sac down which we are headed)?
Before I sign off with a note of praise, two more essential weaknesses bear pointing out. The author makes scant reference to the 2007-08 financial crash, and the deliberate refusal of the UK, US and other governments to punish the perpetrators as one of the seeds of so much present resentment.
Most of all, he delivers a selective reading of the referendum psephology. He assumes everyone who voted Brexit came from the beleaguered and the disenfranchised. Many did, and Jeremy Corbyn’s deliberate refusal to engage with Labour’s core working-class vote during the campaign tipped the result in favour of Leave. They were only part of the story. What about the smug late middle-aged man propping up the home counties pub in his check jacket, having driven there in his Audi 4x4, complaining about the “foreigners” and the country going to the dogs? His “somewhere” is not an appealing place to live.
While there is much for us “anywheres” to disagree with in this book, there is much to be commended. Goodhart has clarity of argument and courage. He has been making these points for a decade and urging the mainstream to engage with them. He does not do fads.
John Kampfner is chief executive of the Creative Industries Federation. David Goodhart will be speaking at a Guardian Live event, The Rise of Populism and the Future of Politics, at Milton Court, London, EC2 on 28 March, 7-8.30pm.
• The Road to Somewhere: The Populist Revolt and the Future of Politics by David Goodhart is published by C Hurst & Co (£20). To order a copy go to bookshop.theguardian.com or call 0330 333 6846. Free UK p&p over £10, online orders only. Phone orders min p&p of £1.99
