Quentin Crisp’s Reviews > Values, Voice and Virtue: The New British Politics > Status Update

"... it is perhaps unsurprising to find evidence of a sharp decline of public trust in media, including the BBC. While in 2003 81% of British people said they 'trusted BBC news journalists to tell the truth,' since then this figure has collapsed to 60% in 2010 and a record low of 44% in 2019, by which time only 8% trusted BBC journalists 'a great deal'. This is clearly problematic for the BBC." One would hope so.

P.117: "While the new elite routinely see their values and voice reflected back at them, from the BBC homepage through to museums, bestseller lists, advertisements, television dramas, politics and more, traditionalists routinely struggle to recognize their world view at all. ..."

"As academic Francis Fukuyama points out, to say a country is welcoming of others may well be true, but it cannot be the basis of an entire national identity . . ." (from page 84).

We often hear that in politics, the right has won the economic argument and the left the cultural argument. It's interesting to read a summary of how that happened concretely in the case of Britain, with the economic liberalism of Thatcher being adopted by Blair's New Labour, and the social policies of New Labour being adopted by the Conservatives since (despite deceptive signalling on the part of the Conservatives).

I read some criticisms (i.e. bad reviews) of this book before I started it, but so far do not recognise the book from the criticisms. Currently the book is describing the process by which, particularly in Britain, hyperglobalisation has created greater inequality, rather than floating all boats as was promised.