Values, Voice and Virtue: The New British Politics

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When liberal cosmopolitan and progressive values are completely dominant, he argues, those who do not share them feel they cannot speak. This has been visible not just in Westminster but in media, creative, cultural and educational institutions, where the voice of these groups is usually only noteworthy because of its absence. They dominate cultural and other public institutions, such as the BBC, the civil service, universities, museums and galleries. America’s elite, he observed, forms a “compact social and psychological entity” that “towers over the underlying population of clerks and wage earners” and whose “values” are “differentiated” from those of the “lower classes”.

Academics are frequently asked to decolonise their reading lists and participate in unconscious bias training, even though the methodology for the latter has been shown to be flawed.For those who want a longer introduction Goodwin’s speech at the National Conservative conference last week is a good place to start. If anyone disagrees, that is simply proof of their original thesis: that the new elite is out of touch. Anybody who has spent any time on Britain’s university campuses knows that wokeism and its associated ideas – white privilege, decolonisation, unconscious bias – are already part of everyday vocabulary (and not only among students).

There had developed, they argued, a new class of college-educated professionals, from engineers and middle managers to social workers and culture producers, that was distinct from the middle class of old but essential to the functioning of capitalism. All their sons and daughters,” he added, “go to college, often after private schools; then they marry one another… After they are well married, they come to possess, to occupy, to decide.The image of a distinct, new elite, defined by its education and values, and standing over the common people, has a long history, popping up throughout the 20th century. They claim to be committed to liberalism and pluralism, while simultaneously avoiding or shutting down debate with anybody who might hold different beliefs to their own. The counter-revolution seen in France’s Gilets Jeunes or Italy’s Giorgia Meloni and similar groups across Europe and of course the USA, has not played itself out in Britain and awaits new leadership to take it forward. But there is such a lovely chemistry between Seydoux and Greggory, and between her and Poupaud there is real erotic languor and romance.