an English typology

It’s difficult to believe I know - but the UK is now only 4 days away from crashing out of the European Union – and the only appropriate way to describe the country’s leadership is that of running around like a headless chicken……

To calm myself, I have been using this month to explore what Brexit tells us about the English sense of identity – or… “who do you think you are?” – which I had speculated about in a post just over a year ago

Brexit is, of course, a deep political statement – so the question is what set of socio-political values is it which finds expression in this apparent rejection of association with Europe? And in particular does it signal a calculation of cost-benefit (as would befit a nation of shopkeepers” in Napoleon’s dismissive term) or is it more emotional – as most commentators tend to argue?

The Road to Somewhere is also quite clear about the answer to such a question……

Every now and then, the blog gets into a discussion about the continuing usefulness of the left-right spectrum in politics…And these days we have, generally, to concede the difference between the New and Old dimensions of the classic division. 

But how long can we keep using the term “new”? The UK “New Left” started all of 60 years ago – and the “New right” at Mont Pelerin a few years earlier..We are surely, therefore, overdue another term…..and the one I suggest is “emergent”  (which Mintzberg, I think it was, first used to distinguish one meaning of strategy)

And, as few people relish being labelled as either left or right, we need a mid-way point for them….That then gives a 3x3 matrix and the question is what terms to use for the resultant combinations……??? This is what I’ve come up with as a first shot…..

Core phrases of the various points of the British political spectrum

	Left	Centre	Right
“Old”	Mass strike	Family values	Traditional authority
“New”	Liberation struggle	Consumerism	Competitive individualism
“Emergent”	the sharing economy	Identity	narcissism

But the Acorn Guide to Consumers which I mentioned in a previous post probably offers some alternative terms…..

Let me know what you think…….