It’s been a ridiculously hectic few weeks and I haven’t been publishing my articles to this blog – so apologies for just vomiting them all over the website at the same time. (I’ve included links to them at the bottom). Apologies to email subscribers who have been spammed with all of the posts – it won’t happen again. Whoops!
Here’s a few other things that might be of interest but just some of it just sounds like shameless bragging when I put them in a list (sorry):
- Chavs got some nice mentions – as one of the New York Times‘ 10 non-fiction books of 2011; as one of the books of 2011 by one of my heroes, Britain’s finest 20th Century historian Eric Hobsbawm; as the Sunday Times’ best-selling political book of 2011; as one of the Metro’s best non-fiction books of 2011; in the Telegraph‘s Literary Year 2011; and as one of the California Literary Review‘s Best Books of 2011. (Self-puff ends).
- I took on those scrounging public sector workers on November 30th with my friends Mark Ferguson and Laurence Durnan
- I had an argy bargy with Edwina Currey over poverty
- The Independent on Sunday put me in their (self-described) “highly subjective” ‘Great Britons of 2011′ list along with Hobo the bomb sniffer dog
The most important part of the last few weeks has been travelling around the country to talk to people – from school students in Newham to students in Liverpool to local people in Newcastle – and hearing from people’s experiences. At a dark time for the left and the labour movement, I’ve seen and heard lots of reasons for hope in the future.
At the moment I’m working on a new introduction for the mass market paperback of Chavs - and I’m going to start work on a second book… watch this space.
And finally here’s the articles I’ve just spammed everybody with:
Comment Is Free: Striking workers must unite across Europe
Guardian Review: Owen Jones on writing about protests
Comment Is Free: The left must call the right’s bluff – and challenge the EU
Independent: The age of consensus is over. And I fear things are about to turn ugly
Independent: Here’s the question… Could you live on £67 a week?
Dazed: Occupy London – A New Age of Rebellion
New Statesman: Miliband’s intervention is a victory for the Occupy Movement
New Statesman: Portugal – a case study in the politics of austerity
New Statesman: Paul Flynn must explain his comments about Jewish loyalty
New Statesman – The EU treaty is a disaster for the left
LabourList: Why Labour people should back ‘The Great Strike’
LabourList: This is a historic day
LabourList: Unless we transform wider attitudes, the left is sunk
