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…….
