Why did the so-called Red Wall (former Labour heartlands in the north of England) crumble and vote in Tory MPs at the 2019 General Election? Why is there a disconnect between traditional working class voters and modern (usually middle class) Labour Party activists? Why does the coalition of people from very different backgrounds, traditions and beliefs no longer hold on the left, and what has led to all of this? Paul Embery’s fascinating book examines these thorny yet vital questions in depth, and offers some solutions to the Opposition for winning back the voters they have lost.
‘Despised: Why the Modern Left Loathes the Working Class’ is an incisive and thought-provoking examination of recent British political history. As a Labour Party member, socialist and trade union activist, author Paul Embery is well-placed to make the observations he does about the current malaise of the British left. Although ‘Despised’ has something of the spirit of a persuasive polemic about it, Embery clearly isn’t motivated by malice towards the modern left. Rather, ‘Despised’ comes across as a plea to his side of the political spectrum to get off Twitter, take their fingers out of their ears and listen to the concerns of the sections of the working class electorate they previously took for granted.
A book with this scope clearly couldn’t avoid a discussion of the deeply divisive issues of Brexit and Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership of the Labour Party from 2015 to 2020. But Embery pinpoints the direction Tony Blair took New Labour in the 90s and 00s as where the disconnect from traditional working class values (and hence voters) began. He uses the notorious example of Gordon Brown dismissing a Labour voter as a “bigoted woman” for raising concerns about the impact mass immigration was having on her home town to illustrate the point. An entire chapter is devoted to the issue that many Labour members feel uncomfortable even discussing. Embery cites his first-hand experience of witnessing the temporary rise of the BNP in Barking and Dagenham in response to the ignored concerns residents had about the scale and pace of change in their home town. Where the modern left is keen to dismiss these voters as ‘racist’, Embery takes a conciliatory approach. He examines why the very rapid social changes were unsettling, especially for older residents who had lived their whole lives in the town, who found “their own sense of belonging and stability” challenged.
Another example Embery cites is Shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry’s ‘image from Rochester’ Tweet. It was a photograph of a white van parked outside a working class terraced house that was flying the flag of St George from the window. Sneering condescension from the modern left when it comes to the patriotism, faith and family values many working class people hold dear is now so commonplace as to warrant its own chapter. Accordingly, ‘A new national religion: Liberal Wokedom’ is the section of the book that brings it bang up to date and provides invaluable, insightful and ruthless analysis of the attitudes of the modern left to the values the old left still cherishes. This section builds on the work of other commentators who have documented the rise of woke ideology: tangentially Douglas Murray’s The Madness of Crowds, but more specifically David Goodhart’s The Road to Somewhere. Embery takes Goodhart’s ideas about the political divide between people of ‘somewhere’ and those of ‘anywhere’ and examines why many working class voters belong firmly in the ‘somewhere’ camp. Yet the predominantly middle class/student Labour activists are almost entirely ‘anywheres’.
All of which leads neatly into Brexit and the uncomfortable truth for most people on the modern left that the overwhelming majority of working class citizens voted for the UK to leave the European Union. If you haven’t already lost or alienated friends and relatives over Brexit, but continue to be fascinated by the historic referendum result and its fallout, then Embery’s ‘Despised’ is a must-read for its nuanced analysis. He vividly outlines how, even though around two thirds of Labour constituencies (as they were in 2016 at the time of the referendum) voted to leave the EU, the Labour Party eventually bowed to pressure from its modern left membership base to offer a second referendum. As Embery explains, it was a deciding factor in Labour’s worst electoral performance in living memory in 2019.
Although much of what he recounts weighs heavily on Embery, he ends the book with optimism. The final chapters offer a case for the nation state, with suggestions for how the left might still challenge global capitalism, as well as how the party might reconnect with the voters it has lost. Some may point to current Labour Leader Sir Keir Starmer’s slightly more patriotic language as auguring steps in the right direction. But there are many more reasons for scepticism. How much humility or self-reflection occurred in the aftermath of the 2019 General Election?
Twitter is not the real world. But the modern left use it as their echo chamber. I have seen many Tweets accusing Starmer of ‘trying to appease racists’ after being pictured with the Union Jack flag, or using patriotic language. Others state with complete conviction that almost everybody outside of London is racist. For my own part, I discovered quite by chance that I (along with countless others) am blocked on Twitter by the Deputy Leader of the Labour Party. I had never followed her, interacted with her, or commented on any Tweets about her. Presumably I follow (or am followed by) somebody she doesn’t like, or liked a Tweet expressing an opinion she doesn’t hold. You might think it’s an odd way to treat members of the electorate until you read and understand Embery’s chapter on liberal wokedom, when it all starts to make sense. The responses on Twitter to Paul Embery and this book are illustrative of exactly the same point. Listening to different opinions, understanding other people’s values and finding ways to cooperate with one another to forge a decent society is hard: the ruthless pursuit of ideological purity, gained by name-calling and ‘cancelling’ anyone who holds a worldview that doesn’t entirely map with your own, is easy. But also alienating. Why would any non-woke voter endorse the modern left when they know they are despised?
As Embery neatly encapsulates, “it is their own arrogance, belief in their own innate moral goodness and inability to comprehend that others may not agree with them, that is in no small part responsible for the rupture between the Left and so many working-class voters.” There are many such sentences in this compelling and persuasive book that will resonate strongly with anyone similarly alarmed by the woke authoritarianism of the modern left. ‘Despised’ is clearly the end-product of a lot of thought and reflection, and it is written with clarity and intelligence. Although some points are returned to more than once, leaving a few passages that feel repetitive, the prose is thoroughly engaging from start to finish. I digested the book over the course of two days, and suspect many readers will similarly be gripped. Anyone looking for a valuable summary of the changing nature of the left and the cultural and political divides in recent British history should add ‘Despised’ to their reading list.
Publisher: Polity Publication date: 27th November 2020 Buy Despised
[rwp-reviewer-rating-stars id=”0″]
