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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Broadcast media: 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

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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, 2010



Articles: 2016

 * I’d rather have a Margaret Thatcher state school than a Michael Gove one - His legacy is clear to see: no room for creativity and critical thinking, plenty for exams and rote learning - 12th February
 * We are addicted to the mighty Google, but that can change - The left is in a lather about tax, but the bigger question is the omnipotence of digital corporations – and how we might cut them down to size - 29th January
 * In mourning Bowie we mourn the end of an era when art could truly subvert - The generation that led the golden age of rock gave us a new sense of possibility. Now, the barriers they helped dismantle are going back up - 12th January
 * When are Labour party ‘moderates’ going to do more than just moan? - Until these self-styled keepers of the flame recognise their own failings and accept that Jeremy Corbyn won, tensions in the party will be unresolved - 2nd January



Articles: 2015

 * Coldplay: how can something so banal be so powerful? - There is a context to the band’s huge success. The worse life gets, the more they seek to reassure us - 27th December
 * Corbyn’s ‘new politics’ is neither hateful nor pure: it’s complicated - While some in Labour fear entryism and the spectre of Militant, within Momentum itself there are tensions and contradictions that may yet explode - 9th December
 * The Lords is a ludicrous affront to democracy and accountability - Democracies have upper houses. But Britain’s upper house gives Andrew Lloyd Webber a say in how the poor survive - 29th October
 * So you hate those Tories – but what comes next? - While Conservatives plan for lasting dominance, the left seems wedded to the pointless protest of the 80s - 9th October
 * Trite, glitzy, superficial. No wonder television news is such a turnoff - Viewers will only return when broadcasters abandon their crass formats and boost content and context - 26th September
 * This refugee crisis was a test for David Cameron. He’s flunked it - The prime minister could have shown leadership to the nation and his own party. But the response has been pitiful - 3rd September
 * We're ignoring the crisis of our most democratic public transport: buses - Bus travel in London may be in rude health, but across the country Tory cuts have led to a massacre of routes and services – leaving thousands of low-income passengers isolated - 25th August
 * Assisted dying is not the answer to old age. It could be the best time of our lives - Gill Pharoah preferred to die rather than grow old. But I don’t share this vision of ageing - 5th August
 * Who should Labour speak for now? - Labour 2020: In the first of a week-long series looking at the questions Labour will need to answer if it’s to win power at the next election, we begin with the state of the party itself – and who it is there to represent - 13th July
 * At good old Glastonbury the new politics finds a home - Inspired by the likes of Podemos, young politically savvy punters keep the festival true to its radical roots - 28th June
 * Is the Labour party having a nervous breakdown? - Neither the leadership candidates nor party grandees give cause for much hope. Depressingly, current squabbles sound like the noise before more defeat - 11th June
 * Why are the gender rules of rock and pop still so reactionary? - It is amazing that every UK festival headline act this summer is all-male – except for the incredible Fleetwood Mac - 6th June
 * Even if the Tories win the battle, they’ve already lost the war for England’s soul - A Cameron victory won’t hide the deep trouble the Conservatives are in. But a party synonymous with people soaked in wealth can rediscover the common touch - 2nd May
 * Every Tory attack on the SNP is another blow to the union - By scaremongering about a possible Labour/SNP government, the Tories have turned from champions of the union to its inadvertent saboteurs - 10th March
 * In ducking the TV debates, David Cameron displays a contempt worthy of Downton Abbey - The prime minister once styled himself as open and up for a challege. Now he acts like a cold power politician who believes rules need only apply to others - 6th March
 * In a country like Britain, obsessed with the now, libraries are a political battleground - From library closures to relations with Europe, Britain is haunted by fear of cultural amnesia - 21st February
 * A lament for the death of bohemian London - The eviction of the 12 Bar Club squatters is just the latest chapter in a devastating saga of politics aligning with business - 6th February
 * No wonder Miliband wants distance from ex-Blairites on the NHS - Former ministers urging the break-up of public services while filling their boots from it embody the blighted New Labour legacy - 29th January
 * Do you want people bullied off benefits? Because that’s what’s happening - The DWP denies it has targets, but the fact is that cruelty in the form of sanctions is visited on thousands of claimants a week - 24th January



Articles: 2014

 * The giants of rock are leaving the stage: their music never will - The Joe Cocker generation’s unsurpassable sounds and amazingly romantic life stories make it truly legendary - 27th December
 * A massive devolutionary moment for Manchester – and perhaps the whole of Britain - This week the north-west felt the first tremors of change to our woefully centralised system of government - 6th November
 * Don’t dismiss public fears about migration as mere bigotry - David Cameron’s angst over Ukip is pushing us towards an EU exit. We need a real debate on free movement - 23rd October
 * Scotland has shown how the left can finally find its purpose - SNP and Scottish Green party membership has surged as women and working-class voters demand change - 26th September
 * The left must answer the English Question – before the Tories do - The Tories are reheating their arguments for 'English votes for English laws'. We should all be very worried - 18th September
 * It's not just Scotland where politics as usual is finished - From Falkirk to Clacton, a wide spectrum of people I've met are singularly disaffected by the traditional parties - 12th September
 * On terrorism, David Cameron is reading from the Blair script - Yet again our leaders are warning of the threat to our way of life while simultaneously chipping away at its foundations - 27th August
 * Kate Bush makes a valiant stand in the battle of transcendence v smartphones - Argument is raging between those who see concerts as collective film shoots and those who just want to lose themselves. I know whose side I'm on - 21st August
 * Ukip has not gone away – don’t be fooled by the lull - Labour has a very real problem with Farage’s party, but posturing on immigration will do little to win back supporters - 7th August
 * Tesco and Tony Blair: two eras brought low by hubris - New Labour and the supermarket rose to power together – and, eerily entwined, fell victim to the same delusional thinking - 25th July
 * The third Scotland won't be denied - whatever the result - John Harris in Edinburgh: Outside Scotland's two dominant parties a group of radical young voices is blazing a trail for a fresh kind of left politics - 12th July
 * The crisis in Labour goes much deeper than Ed Miliband - The party's senior figures have done little in the past four years to indicate an understanding of the problems besetting its politics - 24th June
 * The lesson of Birmingham? State education is in chaos - Some schools' conduct was an offence to liberal principles, and we cannot ignore that. But religion is not the main issue here - 10th June
 * Labour's fake folksiness and empty slogans speak of snobbery and stupidity - Ed Miliband and colleagues are trapped by a pathology of inauthenticity that could hobble the party for another generation at least - 3rd June
 * Ukip's success is no false dawn – it's time to stop sneering - The local election results show that Nigel Farage's party is a force to be reckoned with, and the two-party system in crisis - 23rd May
 * Spend, spend, spend: the chaotic world of Michael Gove's free schools - While the crisis of primary places mounts, vast sums of public cash – which may well be wasted – are being chucked at the education secretary's pet project - 13th May
 * Anti-Ukip drive should focus on the party being ridiculous rather than racist - The cross-party campaign to expose Ukip as racist could backfire – better to focus on its entire ideology that doesn't make sense - 30th April
 * Britain's bootboys may be gone, but are we really more at peace? - Punch-ups were a routine hazard of my adolescence in the 1980s. But this pacified Britain may be less tranquil than it feels - 25th April
 * London has become a citadel, sealed off from the rest of Britain - Ukip and Scottish nationalism are symptoms of public hostility to the overweening power and dominance of the capital - 15th April
 * The Tories own the future – the left is trapped in the past - Too many progressives remain wedded to nationalisation, the big state and jobs for life. If they can't find a more modern vision the battle is lost - 2nd April
 * Tony Benn, Bob Crow: the true mark of greatness is to avoid Twitter's death ritual - These Diana levels of praise were absurd. Today, with a limit of 140 characters, silliness and cant have gone nuclear - 18th March
 * Nick Clegg v Nigel Farage? The Ukip leader must be licking his lips - The Lib Dem leader embodies everything Ukip voters take against. Only Clegg could pick himself as the man to turn them round - 10th March
 * Foreign nannies furore exposes worrying double standards among our political leaders - First thoughts: David Cameron and Nick Clegg's use of overseas domestic staff shows the real issue of immigration – class - 8th March
 * Whatever the result of Scotland's referendum, nothing will be the same - What will happen if – or more likely, when – the no side wins? Labour in particular has good reason to fear the answer - 3rd March
 * On climate change, Ed Miliband must match his bold words with real action - While Tory ranks contain so many 'deniers', Labour can now lead the way in bringing the planet's fate to the top of the political agenda - 17th February
 * What exactly can private schools teach the state sector? - As the head of an independent school puts forward plans to tackle inequality, he forgets his sector's dire record when working in state education - 20th January
 * It's not about the money: what Ed Miliband and David Cameron can learn from Nigel Farage - Others should follow Ukip's lead, confronting the tyranny of the market to address the issues people really care about - 11th January
 * The left is too silent on the clunking fist of state power - Government's role is vital, but an arrogant and centralised state is as big a problem as the out-of-control market - 6th January



Articles: 2013

 * It's not racist to be anxious over large-scale immigration - In between the rightwing hysteria over the 1 January changes and liberal pleas for tolerance, is a public preoccupied with rent, not race - 23rd December
 * Under the iPads and PS4s the ghoul of debt is lurking - Wages are low, debt is rising, and our economy is as vulnerable as it was five years ago. Yet the Christmas binge is back - 9th December
 * If I had the vote I'd grab the chance of Scottish independence - The debate so far shows there's potential for at least one part of these islands to reject the consensus and seek something better - 25th November
 * Grammar schools do not aid social mobility. Stop this deluded thinking - The figures show clearly that selective schools entrench inequality rather than help the poor. They should all be scrapped - 11th November
 * Britain's railways have become mere outposts of other nations' empires - Travel chaos is the least of our problems. An industry that once embodied national pride has been sold for other states to benefit - 28th October
 * Farewell Co-op Bank ethics … we'll miss you - Ethical consumerism, once again, has turned out to be a crock. Perhaps we should have seen it coming - 22nd October
 * The Tories are creating a hostile environment – not just for migrants - With an election not far away, it doesn't matter if policies work – only that they come down hard on malingerers and migrants - 14th October
 * A conservatism is spreading that the Tories can't fathom - The party's neoliberal leaders are out of touch with exactly the kind of values that look likely to define our future - 30th September
 * Why is Ofsted lashing out against primary schools? - Swingeing reports by the inspection body are forcing primaries into academy status and tarnishing its independent reputation - 16th September
 * Our Westminster elite isn't up to dealing with Syria's crisis - Britain may no longer have a political establishment that can credibly speak to the public about the gravest affairs of state - 2nd September
 * Osborne economics is not an invincible force of nature - Although many appear resigned to life under this dysfunctional capitalism, there is a way to make the system less inhuman - 17th August
 * Where is Labour going wrong? - The average Briton can't imagine Ed Miliband in Downing Street, according to the polls. With only 21 months until the next general election, what can the left do to change public opinion? - 12th August
 * Once, the Tories understood rural Britain. Not any more - The anti-fracking protest in Balcombe is just the tip of the iceberg. All over Britain, a new countryside rebellion is brewing - 1st August
 * Britain's diversity was lauded during the Olympics. But no longer - There's a glaring gap between the cant we heard at last summer's Games and where Britain has subsequently arrived - 22nd July
 * The Royal Mail sell-off plan is daylight robbery of our postal service - This mess of a privatisation shows a Thatcherite Tory party hellbent on destroying a national institution - 10th July
 * Falkirk has revealed the rotten state of all our political parties - Falling membership has allowed small cliques to control our politics. It's a failed model, but the powerful like it that way - 8th July
 * Tom Watson's resignation says more than the Labour leadership ever does - Labour is leaving the political foreground dangerously empty, which is also why Falkirk brouhaha has acquired such clout - 5th July
 * The Labour party selection process is no model for progressive politics - Labour's bitter feud with Unite over goings-on in Falkirk shows that both the party and union are out of touch - 3rd July
 * Fracking the nation: the dash for gas beneath rural Britain - With inland gas reserves said to be enough to meet the UK's needs for 25 years, even the most picturesque of places are being eyed up by prospector - 29th June
 * Generation Y: why young voters are backing the Conservatives - Young people are supposed to be left-leaning idealists, but polls tell us that today's under-34s don't believe in handouts and high taxes – and they're voting for David Cameron - 26th June
 * Protests around the world are keeping the spirit of Occupy alive - The unrest of 2011 is likely to last for decades. From Istanbul to Rio, it's not about austerity, but the nature of the state - 24th June
 * The bedroom tax has made huge problems even worse - The government's housing benefit changes are a mess, ramping up arrears and emptying out streets. But what would Labour do differently? - 10th June
 * Turf wars escalate in the battle for Britain's allotments - For the past century, councils have prided themselves on giving people small patches of land to cultivate. But now, with money and land in short supply, many want to take them away - 1st June
 * Half a million Britons using food banks. What kind of country is this becoming? - Let's not mess about: a skyrocketing number of people simply cannot afford to eat, thanks to deliberate government policy - 30th May
 * OK, this mug's got my name on it – but that doesn't mean Starbucks cares - From coffee shops to airlines, the trend to 'personalise' products only serves to underline how impersonal services have become - 27th May
 * What if Ukip's rise is more than a blip? - the Guardian/ICM poll showing voters turning away from established parties could be the shape of things to come - 14th May
 * Is Labour ready to turn the state upside down in 2015? - The party's policy review suggests fundamental changes to the public sector – to square the circle of cuts and growth - 13th May
 * If Boris Johnson is the answer to Ukip, Tories are asking the wrong question - Cameron and his A-list have alienated swaths of voters. Until they understand how, Ukip will be the beneficiary - 6th May
 * Spare a thought for the late unlamented one-nation Tory - Margaret Thatcher never represented all of her party. But her legacy now obscures its centrist, socially concerned wing - 15th April
 * We have to talk about why some people agree with benefit cuts - Centre-left politicians catch glimpses of public opinion on 'welfare' and are frozen to the spot, while the right seizes its chance - 1st April
 * The budget: if Osborne has no answers, who does? - The interesting question is not what the chancellor will say on Wednesday, but whether Ed Balls dares set out his alternative - 18th March
 * No mainstream party in England truly understands conservatism - In Eastleigh and beyond, millions of voters who loathe the establishment tendency to piety are without a voice - 4th March
 * Eastleigh reveals the depth of our disillusionment with the political class - The Lib Dems won here because they focused on local issues. But the real story is the rise of Ukip: explaining it takes you straight to the heart of the problem with modern politics - 1st March
 * Can the UK's 'toilet circuit' of small music venues survive? - From Coldplay to PJ Harvey, a lot of big British rock acts started out playing tiny pubs and clubs around the UK. But with many of these venues closing, who will keep the rock'n'roll dream alive? - 24th February
 * No more excuses. The only defensible option is to go vegetarian - As the horsemeat scandal demonstrates, the global meat industry destroys the planet and leads to animal cruelty. If you care, there's only one thing for it … - 18th February
 * Horsemeat scandal exposes the cheap food imperative - This ever-widening story cuts to the heart of how messed up our eating and shopping habits have become - 11th February
 * Cold fear and resentment, but little sense of hope - Libraries, swimming pools, youth services: all are under threat, with no evidence of an entrepreneurial spirit being created - 4th February
 * Who will speak up for the universal welfare state now? - With even some on the left calling for an end to winter fuel payments and the like, it is time to go back to first principles - 21st January
 * Chav-bashing – a bad joke turning into bilious policy - It started as snobbery, but this week the idea that the poor are to blame for their plight may well become law - 7th January



Articles: 2012

 * The antidote to rampant capitalism? 33⅓ revolutions per minute - Sales of tablets (the digital kind) are 1,000% up, but a quiet rebellion is growing as people rediscover the joy of vinyl records - 26th December
 * A moment of truth for Ed Miliband's Labour party - If every Labour politician cannot oppose Osborne's strivers and skivers plan in its toxic entirety, what exactly are they here for? - 12th December
 * With Ukip's surge, do we still have a progressive majority? - The party's success may not mean victory for the hang 'em, flog 'em brigade but it does show the huge distrust in our politicians - 1st December
 * In the absence of a 'none of the above' option, I had to spoil my ballot paper - The police commissioner elections were a farce, and I thought scrawling across my paper was better than staying at home - 22nd November
 * Our parties must rid themselves of this stench of nepotism - This week's low turnouts show that the public is losing interest in politics. Westminster has to stop keeping it in the family - 17th November
 * Outsource to easyCouncil? Not in our name, says Barnet - Suffolk and Cornwall have held out against running councils like budget airlines. Now the fight's on to stop it in London - 12th November
 * Why I'll spoil my ballot paper in the police commissioner vote - The lacklustre candidates and the lack of interest in these elections make any meaningful vote impossible - 6th November
 * Another omnishambles – and this time it threatens me and my autistic son - The black hole of official indifference, now given official licence, threatens accountability and special needs provision - 28th October
 * David Miliband and the Labour art of speaking in code - New Labour alumni have taken to surreal new heights the practice of putting out coded messages that appear – to the untrained eye – to say close to nothing at great length - 21st October 2012
 * George Osborne's first class train gaffe: Plebgate act II - Have senior Tories and their aides learned nothing from the past few weeks? Do they think first class fares don't apply to them? - 20th October
 * Our high streets are under attack. We need to fight back - It suits big business for people to believe our town centres are dying. But local campaign groups are uniting to defend them - 15th October
 * The end of men? Cardboard man is dead. Now let's redefine masculinity - A new book is right to highlight the male identity crisis caused by economic change. But where's the manifesto for a new man? - 1st October
 * The housing benefits cap means a wretched life for thousands in B&Bs - Iain Duncan Smith's welfare reform will leave families already on the lowest housing rung with nowhere to go - 17th September
 * WARNING: cannabis causes tedious narcissism - Australian smokers are Instagramming inane weed-related photos. It's one of the best reasons to decriminalise the drug - 13th September
 * Fuming over Frankie Boyle will not erase discrimination - Pseudo media storms over Frankie Boyle's Paralympics tweets obscure real issues about people's rights, wealth and power - 3rd September
 * From Pussy Riot, a lesson in the power of punk - Putin may have more serious critics, but Pussy Riot have shown the west how artistic dissent can still make a difference - 19th August
 * The Beastie Boy who really is a role model – to rock stars - Beastie Boy Adam Yauch's will refuses permission for his music to feature in ads. Even the Clash couldn't manage that - 13th August
 * Ennis, Farah, Murray: here ends the state school myth - This weekend should silence all the talk that only the independent sector can produce top-class athletes - 6th August
 * Politics must respond to this pile-up of corporate disgrace - As global corporations continue to usurp democracy, the left must make more noise and force our leaders to take risks - 23rd July
 * Without festival dads we'd have no festivals -So over-30s are too old to rock? Tell Springsteen, the Stone Roses and an industry that relies on their support - 16th July
 * This cruel welfare system is steadily crushing lives – where is the anger? - No one seems to be concerned that hugely profitable private firms are forcing thousands into borderline destitution - 3rd July
 * Immigration should be a debate about real jobs - Immigration is a divisive issue at whose heart heart lie tensions about security, low wages, and a nasty welfare system - 25th June
 * Leveson matters, and not just to the elite it shames - Leveson, a blockbuster of an inquiry, reveals a political class cut off from the public. In its wake must come a new politics - 11th June
 * Our future is in the hands of men who haven't grown up - In past crises our leaders had age and experience. Now they come across as dilettantes distracted by games on their iPads - 4th June
 * The caravan tax has been cut, but it's no thanks to the sniggering media - The caravan industry is vital to jobs in East Yorkshire and Humberside, but London's media have paid scant attention - 30th May
 * Children with special needs deserve better than a rush to reform - The government's frantic approach to special education threatens vital provision for thousands of children like mine - 21st May
 * Local elections 2012: Thatcherism with a posh accent is a toxic proposition - The Tories aren't in existential crisis, but discontent among voters is focused on the leadership cabal and the issue of class - 5th May
 * The metropolitan milieu's disdain poisons our politics - A roped-off ruling elite sneers at large swaths of the country, but the case for a local government revival is unanswerable - 23rd April
 * This bold donations cap is a glimmer of hope for Labour - Some will try to frame Miliband's proposals on union contributions as a betrayal, but diluting power is all to the good - 16th April
 * Elected city mayors: the delusions and dangers of power freak politics - A comfy consensus has been reached on the merits of elected mayors, despite an absence of any real debate on the issue - 10th April
 * The Tories are no closer to shaking the taint of privilege issue - The Cruddas fiasco, the budget, and even alcohol pricing show how very hollow are their claims of shared sacrifice - 26th March
 * Road privatisation is the latest step in the stripping of Britain's assets - If you wonder where David Cameron's plan to sell off our roads will end up, look at how wealth is torn out of the heart of America - 19th March
 * Pub giants fall into debt, but publicans feel the pain - Pub leaseholders slaving away at £1 an hour are being squeezed by pubcos that are billions of pounds in the red - 19th March
 * How police privatisation was recast as common sense - The insidious, incremental growth of a huge, private shadow state has taken Britain by surprise - 5th March
 * Emma Harrison of A4e's big mistake? Not keeping her head down - Flamboyant opulence and welfare-to-work are not the easiest of fits, and the tension between public services and profit is building - 27th February
 * Emma Harrison: nice work if you can get it - A4e boss Emma Harrison paid herself £8.6m last year. Nothing unusual for a top banker perhaps. But her company is funded by the government to find jobs for unemployed people. And it's being investigated for fraud - 22nd February
 * Opposing free labour doesn't make us 'job snobs', Iain Duncan Smith - I'm all for 'real jobs that worthwhile people do', be they in a supermarket or anywhere else. So let's see those jobs - 22nd February
 * McCartney and Dylan? That's the sound of ageing - Rock may be uncool, but it's not dead – as long as it accepts its new status as the music of the ageing - 20th February
 * Work for free and 'be of benefit' to a multinational like Tesco - A Tesco job advert offering 'JSA plus expenses' reveals the sinister reality of government work experience schemes - 17th February
 * Occupy London: what went wrong? - It gave a voice to the usually ignored, but Occupy's consensual model has seen it too often take the path of least resistance - 14th February
 * If you don't like the way big banks are run, move your money - The bankers' pay issue is not just about Stephen Hester's bonus at RBS. A boycott is a way of tackling the systemic problems - 30th January
 * Self-employed business opportunity? No thanks - David Cameron's support for entrepreneurs can't hide the reality of self-employment, nor mask the erosion of proper jobs - 23rd January



Articles: 2011

 * The scale of the challenge is shocking us into action - Through protest, we are finding a new left politics that can propel glaring iniquities to the centre of public debate - 24th December
 * Here's to Mick Hucknall's amazing voice - Season of goodwill: Admitting I liked Simply Red didn't fit with the NME's Maoist indie conspiracy, but Hucknall's repertoire is studded with triumphs - 21st December
 * 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
 * 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
 * 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
 * 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
 * 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
 * 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
 * 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
 * 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
 * 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
 * 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
 * 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
 * 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
 * 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
 * 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
 * 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
 * a tiger we musn't feed'' - As Google's claws bite ever deeper, its dominance of the web should be challenged - 3rd June
 * 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
 * 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
 * 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
 * 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
 * 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: Guardian columnists' verdict'' - 24th March
 * 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
 * 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
 * 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
 * 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
 * rotten sort of recovery'' - The coalition's 'flexible' economic model relies on cripplingly low pay and rising job insecurity - 17th February
 * 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
 * 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
 * '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
 * 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



Articles: 2010

 * 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
 * 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
 * Johnson: enforcer – or mutineer?'' - While Ed Miliband has been on paternity leave, the Blairite old guard has been treacherous - 19th November
 * 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
 * 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
 * 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
 * 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
 * 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
 * right will roar back'' - Don't be fooled by all the leadership election posturing. Saturday will reveal where power lies - 23rd September
 * 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
 * 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
 * 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
 * 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
 * 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
 * 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
 * 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
 * Democrats should prepare for a bumpy ride'' - Reading the Lib Dem soul is a tricky business, but dissent in the ranks - 18th June
 * the politics of temporary remedies'' - John Gray provides an incisive diagnosis of the modern political malaise – if only our politicians were listening - 5th June
 * 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
 * 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
 * jibe exposes disconnect between politicians and voters'' - Labour's political elite has failed to explain social change to ordinary people - 28th April
 * 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
 * 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
 * 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
 * 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
 * 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
 * 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
 * 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
 * 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
 * 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



Articles: 2009

 * 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
 * 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
 * day in the sun'' - The utopian ideals of Red Toryism are appealing, but will not survive a clash with political reality - 27th November
 * 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
 * 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
 * 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
 * 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
 * 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
 * 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
 * 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
 * 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
 * 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
 * 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
 * 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
 * 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
 * final betrayal?'' - We're now in the miserable situation where government ministers look like the most enthusiastic defenders of the City - 27th June
 * love leaves town'' - Like their New Labour fans and counterparts, U2 should take the hint of a dwindling support - 2nd June
 * 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
 * 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
 * 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
 * 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
 * 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
 * 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
 * a hand'' - A last-minute reprieve for the Wirral's libraries shows what can be achieved when local people get together - 6th April
 * 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
 * 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
 * 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
 * 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
 * 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



Articles: 2008

 * sullying of our songs'' - Pop music lovers should fear for the future as a desperate industry turns into glorified advertising - 16th December
 * can define an era'' - The hugely symbolic Heathrow runway ruling has been delayed, and there is a tiny ray of hope - 5th December
 * way out of the ID folly'' - In recession, the identity cards' cost may be a more compelling obstacle than civil liberties arguments - 28th November
 * 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
 * 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
 * sell'' - How can it Westfield - and the growing number of giant malls around the country - survive? - 24th October
 * 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
 * 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



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