John Harris



Profile:
Full name: John Harris

Area of interest: Politics, popular culture and music

Journals/Organisation: The Guardian, New Statesman

Email: [mailto:john2009@johnharris.me.uk john2009@johnharris.me.uk] | [mailto:john.harris@guardian.co.uk john.harris@guardian.co.uk]

Personal website: http://www.johnharris.me.uk

Website: Guardian.co

Blog: So now who do we vote for?

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Career: Journalist at music weeklies Sounds, Melody Maker and NME. Features Editor at Q magazine. Editor at Select magazine

Current position/role: journalist, columnist and author


 * also writes/has written for: The Independent, The Times and The Observer

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Video: occasional member of Newsnight Review panel

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Books & Debate:

 * So now who do we vote for? OCLC238786627, 2005
 * The Dark Side of the Moon: the making of the Pink Floyd masterpiece OCLC60607520; 2005
 * The last party: Britpop, Blair and the demise of English rock OCLC59328342, 2003

Latest work:

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Current debate: Chair: Who owns the progressive future? organised by Soundings journal and Comment is Free, 1st December 2008 

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 * see also: John Harris Election tour of Britain



Articles:

 * Europhobia's no swivel-eyed Tory monopoly - Support for the anti-EU lobby in Britain has risen from 19% to half the population in 10 years. Labour ministers feel trapped - 13th December 2011
 * The euro no longer rocks Metallica and the Red Hot Chili Peppers - Once Jay-Z liked to handle wads of euros. But now top US acts find Europe increasingly uncool - 8th December 2011
 * Britain's economy needs a big push but the Tories can only nudge - Osborne's grand plan to boost growth is a dogma-ridden hybrid that will squeeze the low-paid and rebound on the economy - 29th November 2011
 * Youth unemployment: aspirational talk? All the young hear is a sick joke - If coalition rhetoric is to be believed, the UK is full of optimism. The reality: people are working unpaid in Poundland - 19th November 2011
 * The mainstream of politics risks letting loose the ghouls - Lib Dems no longer occupy the centre left, Labour is mired in the past. And so appears evil genius Nigel Farage - 5th November 2011
 * Breezy optimism in the political bubble. Fear and loathing on Britain's streets - Outside the party conference halls the disconnect between politicians and the public has never been greater - 6th October 2011
 * Now we have to rely on the right to fight the feral rich - Let's hear it for Charles Moore, the Spectator and FT. Their attacks on the feral elite contrast with a virtually silent Labour - 10th September 2011
 * volunteered to work for nothing: a new recipe for the likes of them'' - Cameron and Blair talk of a rump at the bottom of society – rhetoric that suits businesses getting unpaid labour out of it - 24th August 2011
 * are the real looters – rioters or MPs?'' - You help yourself to hundreds of pounds worth of fancy chairs, rugs, lamps – are you not in the same moral ballpark as looters? - 18th August 2011
 * a progressive, David Cameron is sounding very Thatcherite'' - The prime minister's fightback speech failed to display the consistency or understanding needed after last week's riots - 16th August 2011
 * contract to terrify 1.5m people on incapacity benefit'' - A French company is being paid millions to harass incapacity benefit claimants with the threat of being made destitute - 26th July 2011
 * has too much history to be one of austerity's casualties'' - The failed regeneration of Morecambe is a depressing example of how the private sector cannot thrive if the state's hacked back - 22nd July 2011
 * can't just catch a bus to a job that doesn't exist'' - In south Wales it's clear that simply assuming those on benefits could find work is Tory fantasy - 7th July 2011
 * artist will dare break this deathly cultural silence?'' - In the 80s, even Wham! supported the miners. But tomorrow's strike has yet to find any expression in the wider culture - 29th June 2011
 * this be the church to calm our secularist outrage?'' - Anywhere but Westminster: Evangelical worship gets many on the left hostile or awkward. So how do we respond to believers that save the destitute? - 14th June 2011
 * world needs a new Marx, but it keeps creating Malcolm Gladwells'' - The outlook is bleak for many British people. If Labour is to have any relevance, it needs some fresh thinking - 8th June 2011
 * a tiger we musn't feed'' - As Google's claws bite ever deeper, its dominance of the web should be challenged - 3rd June 2011
 * Dover's cliffs are now a no-fly zone for speculators'' - At Cadbury and Manchester United they'd understand the political significance of the people's takeover of Dover port - 18th May 2011
 * hackers and spooks want our heads in the cloud'' - Our unthinking embrace of these giant data centres is throttling the giddy anti-authoritarian computing dream - 26th April 2011
 * John Lewis to workers' co-ops: these Tories love wrongfooting the left'' - The vision Maude and co have for the public sector challenges Labour: what's your alternative – the 1945 way, now and for ever? - 19th April 2011
 * Duffy v Nick Clegg doesn't come close to 'bigotgate''' - Labour patronisingly uses Gillian Duffy for political stunts, yet it's done little to address what lay behind her original face-off - 14th April 2011
 * Clarkson and co are puerile and proud of it'' - The rise of child-men like David Cameron and Jeremy Clarkson suggests an alarming shift in modern masculinity - 1st April 2011
 * 2011: Guardian columnists' verdict'' - 24th March 2011
 * the home of Mini Rolls and Smash was gobbled up'' - Food factory workers facing the the sack will march on Saturday for an economy that values more than just money - 23rd March 2011
 * is dead in the water'' - The party must reach out and participate in a wider centre-left politics if it is to have any kind of meaningful future - 18th March 2011
 * coalition has sneaked a coup on a sleeping public'' - Its project to drastically remodel British society is speeding ahead without any regard for what it told voters last year - 28th February 2011
 * alcohol and the ecstasy: prejudice drowns out sense'' - The government's rank relationship with the drinks industry contributes to a twisted logic that contorts policy on intoxicants - 21st February 2011
 * rotten sort of recovery'' - The coalition's 'flexible' economic model relies on cripplingly low pay and rising job insecurity - 17th February 2011
 * politics is inherently pluralistic – the left needs to be too'' - It makes no sense that Peter Mandelson is allowed to join Compass while someone like Caroline Lucas is excluded - 4th February 2011
 * the sharp end of austerity unions are still our best hope'' - This is a year for unions to find the clout and relevance millions are relying on – not feed the caricatures of Tory papers - 20th January 2011
 * 'We do so much more than shelve books and say shhh''' - The Tories clearly don't know how much libraries do. Cuts will threaten the very social bonds they claim to want to promote - 12th January 2011
 * am a Beatles obsessive. But let's cut the Fabs-worship'' - As John Lennon said, it's just a rock group that split up. But 40 years on the Beatles use so much cultural air no one else can breathe - 4th January 2011
 * this Dickensian season, a Victorian clique still rules'' - Austerity, deference and a little charity to the poor: the nation is being recast according to the ancient mores of the upper class - 22nd December 2010
 * can't keep treating party leaders like football managers'' - Miliband faces a wall of cant, ideological hostility and sheer media silliness. Labour shouldn't be fazed by this kind of hounding - 8th December 2010
 * Johnson: enforcer – or mutineer?'' - While Ed Miliband has been on paternity leave, the Blairite old guard has been treacherous - 19th November 2010
 * us map the world outside Westminster'' - Building on my series of films, I'm looking for your views on the impact of political decisions on communities across Britain - 18th November 2010
 * the perfect drug for a brittle and anxious Britain'' - How did the high-rollers' drug of choice become so widely used that the country now tops the European league tables? - 18th November 2010
 * Liar, protest music on fire?'' - After I lamented the lack of pop-cultural voices angered by coalition policies, people were quick to come forward - 11th November 2010
 * out there, please pick up a guitar and howl'' - Public services are being laid to waste and benefits shorn, but popular culture's voice of dissent remains strangely silent - 5th November 2010
 * Miliband's leadership will be lonely, but his politics are sound'' - Of the 49 people who ran for the shadow cabinet, only nine backed this Miliband. He must not let this dilute his radicalism - 8th October 2010
 * right will roar back'' - Don't be fooled by all the leadership election posturing. Saturday will reveal where power lies - 23rd September 2010
 * the zealot: a mindset closer to a pathology than politics'' - New Labour dogma pervades Tony Blair's biography. Bringing it into the leadership race is a depressing mistake - 2nd September 2010
 * Lib Dem civil war? Surely we're forgetting something'' - The party may have been hijacked by a free-market clique – but, as New Labour discovered, there's no glue like power - 25th August 2010
 * the internet is altering your mind'' - A new book claims the amount of time we spend on the internet is changing the very structure of our brains – damaging our ability to think and to learn - 21st August 2010
 * political wizard to a byword for excess. The journey's over for Tony'' - Blair is beset by public opprobrium and his own apparent guilt. Now his gift only highlights New Labour's toxic legacy - 18th August 2010
 * the north-south divide will soon become a chasm'' - We are not all in this together, whatever the metropolitan elite may say. The cuts will be felt most far beyond the M25 - 9th August 2010
 * can Labour do, with the Blairites still in power?'' - From health to education to the BBC, the coalition is putting the former PM's plans into action. The opposition is struggling - 31st July 2010
 * violence: gentleness and decency will survive these vile attacks'' - To see the violence that marred T in the Park and Latitude as some awful fall from innocence does the festivals a disservice - 21st July 2010
 * Democrats should prepare for a bumpy ride'' - Reading the Lib Dem soul is a tricky business, but dissent in the ranks - 18th June 2010
 * the politics of temporary remedies'' - John Gray provides an incisive diagnosis of the modern political malaise – if only our politicians were listening - 5th June 2010
 * new motto: immigration, immigration, immigration'' - Some Labour people have settled on a daft strategy: outflank the Lib-Cons from the right, and so satisfy the proles - 22nd May 2010
 * could pull off the herculean task of leading a Lib-Lab coalition?'' - A Lib-Lab coalition may be in the country's interests, but it would be mauled by terrifying media and corporate forces - 11th May 2010 (Cif at the polls)
 * 2010: Time to revisit Operation Beardy Lefty'' - With a Lib-Lab deal looking like Labour's only hope, why is the party pursuing a scorched-earth policy? - 3rd May 2010
 * jibe exposes disconnect between politicians and voters'' - Labour's political elite has failed to explain social change to ordinary people - 28th April 2010
 * Cameron is a nobody in the north'' - For all Cameron's sink-estate photocalls, mention his name in Liverpool or Glasgow and you begin to wonder if he even exists - 13th April 2010
 * absurd fear of the old left is killing Labour's best ideas'' - In Blairite pathology, even modest manifesto proposals can lead some in the party to see reds under beds - 27th March 2010
 * horror stories offer the left home truths'' - Cases like that of Khyra Ishaq need more than an anonymous 999 call. We have to commune, converse and organise - 16th March 2010
 * Labour's fall, who will be left to engineer its rise?'' - James Purnell has shown that the underground left is vibrant with ideas. Yet the mass exodus of MPs is leaving politics broken - 20th February 2010
 * in five could actually be a winning endorsement'' - A miserable absence of meaning in our politics leaves the public so cold that a party with 20% of the vote could take office - 11th February 2010
 * trouble with the A word'' - 'Aspiration' is worse than just a vapid bit of rhetoric – it betrays an insidious cross-party con trick - 25th January 2010
 * simpler protest than Billy Bragg's wheeze: switch banks'' - You don't have to do a Billy Bragg to register your outrage at bonuses. Just join the Co-op - 20th January 2010
 * without a cause'' - The latest Labour move against Gordon Brown has little to say about policy or political direction – or even why he should go - 7th January 2010
 * Labour now recalls it needs two wings to fly'' - When Brown inevitably goes over the electoral cliff, assumptions about how the party leadership works may fall with him - 5th January 2010
 * very British tribute to the troops'' - With events like the Sun's Millies, this year we celebrated our soldiers more than ever, but without 'boasting and flag-wagging' - 23rd December 2009
 * Lib-Lab pact: deep down they know it makes sense'' - It may not be exactly a love-in on the left, but a coalition government is the way to stop Cameron taking us back to 1979 - 16th December 2009
 * day in the sun'' - The utopian ideals of Red Toryism are appealing, but will not survive a clash with political reality - 27th November 2009
 * nervous, noncommittal noughties can't end soon enough'' - In a decade defined by fatalism and impotence, film-makers and writers have been quick to tap into our sense of impending doom - 17th November 2009
 * soul of Kirstie Allsopp may still cost the Tories dear'' - Cameron's victory hinges on his tribe, yet little can rile voters like cut-glass vowels and a strident sense of class entitlement - 27th October 2009
 * off of my tuffet, Muffet'' - I can't lament the demise of nursery rhymes when my three-year-old sings rock'n'roll classics instead - 16th October 2009
 * conference: Sunday'' - Harris's fringe: Labour activists at the conference have been reduced to a hard-bitten rump who refuse to give up - 28th September 2009
 * a Beatles fanatic. But this is just overkill'' - A month of rolling news coverage of the new Beatles computer game and a box-set reissue and I'm sick of the Fab Four - 12th September 2009
 * weird, neurotic leader does not explain Labour's malaise'' - At the core of the party something is unravelling. But it's the Blair project rather than Gordon Brown's psychology - 10th September 2009
 * pirates thrive on a scrap with the analogue crowd'' - The utopia envisaged by some online envangelists would be impoverished creatively, breeding many buskers and no Beatles - 27th August 2009
 * men-in-white tarnish easily'' - I'd love to support Martin Bell and Terry Waite's independent guerrillas, but their wafflesome agenda makes it impossible - 21st August 2009
 * anti-politics merely opens the door to millionaires and careerists'' - The Tories are pushing election primaries as a cure-all for a rotten democracy, but they will lead to a takeover by cash - 17th August 2009
 * and death? Afraid so. It will be Labour's most seismic year since 1981'' - Election defeat will bring the party's most pivotal moment for a generation. Many may jump ship and join forces with new allies - 10th August 2009
 * outsourcing the future, to be built by Thatcher and Philip K Dick'' - Don't be fooled. The drive to privatise goes on. How long till schools, prisons and hospitals all sport flashing corporate logos? - 29th July 2009
 * keeps his cool'' - Andy Coulson gave a fine performance as the editor who knew nothing about NoW phone-hacking. So is he in the clear? - 22nd July 2009
 * final betrayal?'' - We're now in the miserable situation where government ministers look like the most enthusiastic defenders of the City - 27th June 2009
 * love leaves town'' - Like their New Labour fans and counterparts, U2 should take the hint of a dwindling support - 2nd June 2009
 * dark side of Vince Cable'' - The rapturous reception Cable earned at Hay today was expected; the Lib Dem's attack on Alistair Darling was not - 1st June 2009
 * shirts to the fore'' - Many of my friends now see no point in voting Labour, and want to give the Greens more clout - 28th May 2009
 * rule-by-clique'' - A new politics: The first-past-the-post model is as broken as the allowances system. It is time for electoral reform - 20th May 2009
 * Labour's marriage is back on the rocks'' - The McBride affair has divided Labour. But what the party needs now is neither Brownism nor Blairism, but democratic socialism - 18th April 2009
 * to Labour: please think about how it looks'' - It's not just the email smear debacle. Talk of a stitch-up in candidate selection adds to a sense the party is out of touch - 15th April 2009
 * all too familiar plot'' - We were told this crisis would end the country's north south-divide. In fact it's worse than ever - 9th April 2009
 * a hand'' - A last-minute reprieve for the Wirral's libraries shows what can be achieved when local people get together - 6th April 2009
 * libraries are at risk - just when we need them most'' - Lean times are already bringing cuts in services, with little heed to the vital role they play and how they shape futures - 2nd April 2009
 * this dreary sell-off: let creativity deliver Royal Mail'' - Second-class thinking advocates privatisation. But with free market vanities failing daily, it's time to abandon dogma - 25th February 2009
 * demise of Smalls of Spilsby holds a lesson for every high street'' - With local independents bearing the brunt of this recession, our once bustling town centres are turning into dead-zones - 18th February 2009
 * isn't the key'' - Marriage is on the decline, but let's face it: weddings crystallised all the worst aspects of the boom years anyway - 14th February 2009
 * scars are back in vogue with the Big Beasts' revival'' - The greenhorns ready to inherit the political earth will be fretting. Kenneth Clarke's return reflects an appetite for experience - 21st January 2009
 * sullying of our songs'' - Pop music lovers should fear for the future as a desperate industry turns into glorified advertising - 16th December 2008
 * can define an era'' - The hugely symbolic Heathrow runway ruling has been delayed, and there is a tiny ray of hope - 5th December 2008
 * way out of the ID folly'' - In recession, the identity cards' cost may be a more compelling obstacle than civil liberties arguments - 28th November 2008
 * we want more representative MPs, we need to start talking about class'' - Unless Labour grasps this core issue all the tough talk on Westminster's narrowing social base will be lost in tokenism - 17th November 2008
 * idiotic, coarse Auntie'' - Ross and Brand's oafish style defiles the airwaves, and to say so is no sop to the authoritarian right - 28th November 2008
 * sell'' - How can it Westfield - and the growing number of giant malls around the country - survive? - 24th October 2008
 * all going to be keeping down with the Joneses now'' - Britons are being nudged closer together by debt, job insecurity, and the realisation that the welfare state has its uses - 22nd October 2008
 * now for the good news'' - The West End's struggling, the art market's faltering ... but might the slump be a boon for culture? - 21st October 2008



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