It’s been both a depressing and a fascinating couple of weeks……
“If you woke up on Friday morning, thinking that the country you live in was being controlled by a social tribe you didn’t know much about, and you felt terrified about the future, bear in mind that that’s how millions of people in this country have lived for decades.”
The fallout from the Leave vote on 23rd June has stimulated a host of great commentary. Not wanting to wallow in the mass of material generated, what follows is a selection of some of the more interesting (and entertaining) reads and watches from the last couple of weeks. Comments and responses welcome!
Looming crisis
In the run-up to the EU Referendum on 23 June, a number of people posted essays making the case for UK’s relationship with Europe – including this one from Callum Lee on the Creative Industries in Europe.
Tom Campbell also wrote about ‘nationalism’ in culture and the creative industries.
The immediate aftermath
Jeanette Winterson was one of the more positive Remain voters who, rather than bemoaning the fact that a majority had voted against her views, used the opportunity to set out the case for a progressive response.
This essay considers the Sociology of Leave-voting – placing it in a much broader historical and social context.
Wider repercussions
Frankie Boyle’s piece in the Guardian, a couple of weeks after the vote, takes on Brexit, the Tory leadership race and the conflict within the Labour Party. It is a highly amusing tour-de-force – making the case for intellectual debate and serious comedy rather than “mere seriousness”.
Compass organised a lively meeting of a new ‘Progressive Alliance’ with some stirring speeches and contributions. John Harris was, by all accounts, the star. This video captures his initial speech and is well worth a watch.
And a big shout-out to Amina Gichinga from Take Back the City.
Creative inspiration
Finally, it’s always valuable to have creative perspectives – whether it’s directly related to the topic in hand or not.
John Berger is a brilliant and inspirational writer and artist who has written extensively, through novels and articles, about the plight of migrants and about the importance of a sense of place and somewhere you can call ‘home’.
Here, he tells a fish story.
Graham Hitchen 