December « 2019 « John Harris

Archive for December, 2019

In a world of online everything, a real #PeriodOfReflection could benefit us all | John Harris

Monday, December 23rd, 2019

Our lives are increasingly dictated by the frantic pace of social media; it’s time to reclaim the space to slow down and think

He didn’t get to nationalise the railways or dish out free broadband, but right at the year’s end Jeremy Corbyn made one undeniable contribution to politics, culture and human understanding. In the wee hours of 13 December, as the scale of Labour’s drubbing became clear, he said he would be stepping down after the start of a “process of reflection”. Online, this phrase was combined with another P-word Corbyn had used in the same speech, and yet another viral sensation was born: #PeriodOfReflection was rapidly everywhere, and its use became more and more ironic as the noise around the contest to be Labour leader increased. The apogee of absurdity probably arrived last Wednesday, in the mid-afternoon, when #CorbynwasRight was the number one hashtag on Twitter, and calm and introspection seemed very far away indeed.

Thumbs that endlessly jab at phones attest to the fact that for many of us, stepping back from the fray is unthinkable

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In a world of online everything, a real #PeriodOfReflection could benefit us all | John Harris

Monday, December 23rd, 2019

Our lives are increasingly dictated by the frantic pace of social media; it’s time to reclaim the space to slow down and think

Thumbs that endlessly jab at phones attest to the fact that for many of us, stepping back from the fray is unthinkable

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A Labour revival must tap into the energy for change on the ground | John Harris

Monday, December 16th, 2019

The party needs to reconnect with working-class self-help, and leave behind the Big State

Ten days before the election, I was in the Dumbiedykes estate in Edinburgh, a high-rise scheme a few minutes’ walk from the Scottish parliament, where a shrinking working-class community is hanging on in the face of gentrification. The neighbourhood, which had a Labour MP until 2010, is the headquarters of an organisation called Edinburgh Helping Hands, whose motto is “Solidarity not charity”: its work runs from giving children in the city free bikes, through football and boxing training, to basic help with the most urgent aspects of poverty.

Its co-founder, Jim Slaven, was readying himself for a food-bank collection at Hibernian FC that would bring in huge amounts of provisions, donated by a constant stream of fans bringing bulging carrier bags. But before he set off, he walked us round his estate, and put its experiences in the context of politics. “Do you know who we never see round here?” he asked. “The left.”

The point Labour missed was that change is already happening, and its role should be to encourage and accelerate it

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Working-class voters desert Labour as ‘red wall’ crumbles

Saturday, December 14th, 2019

Party shaken by possibly terminal decline of tribal loyalty in Welsh and northern England heartlands

On 9 September 1981, the Norwegian football commentator Bjørge Lillelien famously celebrated his national team’s 2-1 victory over England in a World Cup qualifier. Alternating between English and his first language, he lost himself in a list of English notables and icons: “Lord Nelson, Lord Beaverbrook, Sir Winston Churchill, Sir Anthony Eden, Clement Attlee, Henry Cooper, Lady Diana … vi har slått dem alle sammen, vi har slått dem alle sammen.” The latter words roughly translate as: “We have beaten them all.”

At Manor sports complex in Fenton, one of the six towns that make up the city of Stoke-on-Trent, the early hours of Friday morning presented a similar spectacle. As the counting of ballot papers went on, local Conservative activists gazed in awe at TV screens filled with the names of once-solid Labour seats that were falling to the Tories.

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Anywhere but Westminster: how Labour lost, and the hope that endures – video

Saturday, December 14th, 2019

John Harris and John Domokos finish their election road trip with a rain-sodden journey to Milton Keynes alongside enthusiastic young Labour activists, followed by a repeat visit to Stoke-on-Trent – where they watch the party’s working class vote collapse, the endpoint of a story Anywhere But Westminster has been tracing for 10 years. But in among the electoral rubble, they find overlooked signs of a better future

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