How many people ever preface a statement with – “Speaking as a …… ……” unless they believe that belonging to that specific, arbitrary group confers on them special insight, or a ‘right’ to speak, that is denied to those outside the group? A major theme of Goodwin's work has been to explain what he calls "the realignment" of British politics, which has seen the Labour Party becoming more dependent on the liberal,

Matt Goodwin ridiculed over bizarre claim in new video". Left Foot Forward: Leading the UK's progressive debate. 2023-07-04 . Retrieved 2023-07-12. These tensions have been reinforced by the way the elite see some groups as less morally worthy or virtuous. Instead of bringing people together around unifying narratives the new elite are increasingly adopting a world-view that is hard-wired to push different groups apart. They are reshaping institutions around a divisive new ideology of radical woke progressivism that awards highly-educated liberals and racial, sexual and gender minorities a much greater sense of social status, honour and respect than other groups. This leaves many voters feeling that not only have their values been cast aside but that they and their wider group are now being shamed and stigmatised as a morally inferior under-class. Good Point James, I was just being provocative for fun – the troll in me is something I must always try to keep restrained. There are several premises in Goodwin’s argumentation that, albeit not original, one would struggle to disagree with. For one, he is right to point out the erosion of significant differences between the two main political parties, Conservative and Labour, which have coalesced around the liberal consensus set up by Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s. He is also correct in linking that to the relative reduction in social mobility (from accountancy to architecture to acting), coupled with the rise of a new middle class that has benefitted from that liberal consensus and that has been increasingly detached from other social groups. Indeed, a significant part of this social group displays a broad liberal orientation on both economic and cultural matters. However, Goodwin uses these widely accepted observations to perform a series of logical and empirical leaps in the attempt to push a very transparent political agenda. Values, Voice and Virtue is certainly a work of sociological insight. But it’s also a much-needed corrective. It gives voice to those whose values are scarcely heard or represented by the media. As Goodwin writes of these members of the devalued majority, ‘they no longer feel their voice is represented in the institutions; and they no longer feel that, relative to others, their group is recognised as having the same amount of social status, prestige, dignity and moral worth’.Bloomfield, Jon. "Toxic Friends? A Critique of Blue Labour". The Political Quarterly . Retrieved 21 August 2023. But to keep spiked free we ask regular readers like you, if you can afford it, to chip in – to make sure that those who can’t afford it can continue reading, sharing and arguing. McGee, Luke (18 May 2023). "Why are some British Conservatives behaving like the next election is already lost?". CNN . Retrieved 18 August 2023. According to Huw Davies and Sheena McGrae, Goodwin's "concerns about wokeism are a recurrent theme in his output". Goodwin has described "wokeism" as "a pseudo-religion". He has acted as an adviser to the Conservative Party and in the 2022 Conservative Party leadership contest supported "anti-woke campaigner" Kemi Badenoch, referring to her as ‘one of the most interesting Conservatives in British politics for a very long time’. He supports the Conservative government's plan to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda, [11] and has advised the party to raise “the salience of cultural issues”. Malik argues that Goodwin now advocates a politics that a decade earlier he would have described as "toxic". [46]

Goodwin, Matthew (2011). New British Fascism: The Rise of the British National Party. Routledge. ISBN 978-0415465007. Payne, Sebastian. "Values, Voice and Virtue by Matthew Goodwin review — has the Tory party bungled the post-Brexit realignment?". Rather than reflect on why so many of our institutions do not adequately reflect the full range of values and voices in British society, or attempt to grasp why so many voters are still so utterly disillusioned with political parties of the mainstream left and right, many in the New Elite prefer to put their fingers in their ears instead, or to silence and stigmatise anyone who disagrees with them. They want to pretend that the last decade in politics did not happen.Hollowing out national democracy by handing power to a new more insular, careerist and homogenous political class in Westminster. Shaw, Martin (25 April 2023). "Professors, Power and Projection: the Case of Matthew Goodwin – Byline Times". Byline Times . Retrieved 22 August 2023. So you would have to be pretty ignorant of the wider, well-known literature on the New Elite to think that what I’m arguing in Values, Voice and Virtue is particularly unique or outrageous. And yet, based on their reaction over the past week, many members of the New Elite clearly do think this about my argument. Their reaction has been very revealing. Many people disagree with Goodwin – and we might think that the ease with which his ideas have spread is evidence against his claim that progressives are exercising such an iron grip on what is “acceptable … within the national conversation”. But he claims that his critics are simply in denial about the fact that they are part of the same elite that he says has cut ordinary voters adrift from a say in how the country is run. Today’s newsletter, with the London School of Economics sociologist and expert on elites Mike Savage, is about how much of this is true, and what other elites might also have a say. a b c d C. Davies, Huw; MacRae, Sheena E. (15 May 2023). "An anatomy of the British war on woke". Race & Class. SAGE Publications. doi: 10.1177/03063968231164905. ISSN 0306-3968. S2CID 258736793.