Author Archives: Kenan Malik

POSH MAY BE PASSÉ BUT CONTEMPT IS NOT

December 31, 2018 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on changing attitudes to class, was my Observer column this week. (The column included also a short piece on cookery books.) It was published in the Observer, 30 December 2018, under the headline ‘Posh is so passé – today’s elite prefers the myth of the meritocracy’. I’m not posh,’ an irate David Dimbleby told the Today presenter John Humphrys. ‘I come from Wales, as you do.’ Dimbleby, who this month stepped down as host of BBC’s Question Time, was being interviewed by Humphrys, […]

Categories: Britain, Class • Tags: brexit, Class, david dimbleby, david runciman, democracy, donald trump, education, elite, elitism, meritocracy, michael young, populism, poshness, privilege, richard dawkins, technocracy, upper class, working class

A YEAR OF PANDAEMONIUM 2018

December 29, 2018 by Kenan Malik

As another year draws to a close, here are some of the highlights of a year of Pandaemonium in 2018. . Politics British politics was, of course, dominated by Brexit. I wrote little directly on the issue (though my original pieces still, I think, hold up well), but much around the issue of populism, including analyses of the Lega/M5S victory in Italy and of the standoff between Italy and the EU over the new government’s budget, and an article on the gilets jaunes […]

Categories: Pandaemonium • Tags: 2018, pandaemonium

THE INCOHERENCE OF IMMIGRATION POLICY

December 24, 2018 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on Sajid Javid’s new White Paper on immigration, was my Observer column this week. (The column included also a short piece on José Mourniho.) It was published in the Observer, 23 December 2018, under the headline ‘The new immigration proposals are economic and political nonsense’. ‘We have become illiberal and lowered quotas at a time when we have an acute shortage of labour.’ So observed the cabinet minister Richard Crossman in his diaries in 1966, after the Labour government, […]

Categories: Britain, Politics, Race & Immigration • Tags: british politics, conservative party, immigration, immigration policy, iwgb, sajid javid, solidarity, working class

THE EU AND THE ITALIAN JOB

December 17, 2018 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on the confrontation between the EU and Italy over the Italian budget, was my Observer column this week. (The column included also a short piece on the nature of public debate.) It was published in the Observer, 16 December 2018, under the headline ‘Europe’s merciless treatment of Italy only hardens popular resentment’. A standoff with EU officials. Ministers flying to Brussels to negotiate last-minute deals. Cries of betrayal at home. Dark warnings of economic calamity and social unrest. No, […]

Categories: International, Politics • Tags: austerity, democracy, european union, far right, five star movement, italy, lega, matteo salvini, ms5, populism

WHO WILL GIVE SHAPE TO DISAFFECTION?

December 10, 2018 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on the gilets jaunes protests, was my Observer column this week. (The column included also a short piece on MSF being forced to end its rescue operations in the Mediterranean). It was published in the Observer, 9 December 2018, under the headline ‘A fear of cultural loss is fuelling anger with elites across Europe’. ‘Can we borrow him?’ Gary Lineker asked in April of the ‘charismatic, smart and ballsy’ Emmanuel Macron. The BBC presenter was far from alone in being […]

Categories: International, Justice & Liberties, Philosophy & Ethics, Politics • Tags: austerity, centrism, disaffection, emmanuel macron, far right, france, gilets jaunes, left, protests

A PLAYLIST FOR PETE SHELLEY

December 7, 2018 by Kenan Malik

What is it that links Big Mama Thornton’s ‘Hound dog’ to Sam Cooke’s ‘(What a) wonderful world’ to the Kinks’ ‘You really got me’ to the Supremes’ ‘You can’t hurry love’ to Toots and Maytal’s ‘Pressure drop’ to the Undertones’ ‘Teenage kicks’ to Prince’s ‘When doves cry’ to the Buzzcocks’ ‘Ever fallen in love (with someone you shouldn’t have)?’? It’s one of those strange questions that popped into my head this week after the death of Pete Shelley. Shelley was […]

Categories: Culture & Books, Philosophy & Ethics • Tags: buzzcocks, music, pete shelley, pop songs, punk

WHERE DOES THIS BULLY GET HIS IDEAS FROM?

December 3, 2018 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on an assault on a Syrian refugee schoolboy, was my Observer column this week. (The column included also a short piece on the CRISPR baby). It was published in the Observer, 2 December 2018, under the headline ‘I know all about being bullied by racists. That’s the Britain I grew up in’. I cannot recall ever being ‘waterboarded’. But nor can I recall many days when, as a schoolboy, I did not return home without a bruised lip […]

Categories: Britain, Philosophy & Ethics, Race & Immigration • Tags: british politics, hostile environment, immigration, racism, racist attacks, refugees, social media, theresa may, tobias ellwood

ON THE ETHICS OF CRISPR

November 30, 2018 by Kenan Malik

Last week, the Chinese scientist He Jiankui announced the birth of the first CRISPR baby (actually, twins). Two beautiful little Chinese girls, Lulu and Nana, came crying into the world as healthy as any other babies a few weeks ago’, He said in the first of five videos posted on to YouTube. He’s claim is as yet unverified, but if true, it would signal a landmark moment in human genome-editing. It has also been widely met with outrage and condemned […]

Categories: Philosophy & Ethics, Science & Technology • Tags: bioethics, biotechnology, china, chinese science, crispr, ethics, gene editing, genetics, genome editing, germline editing, he jiankui

DISAGREEMENT IS NOT HATRED

November 26, 2018 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on the transgender debate, was my Observer column this week. (The column included also a short piece on the war on terror). It was published in the Observer, 25 November 2018, under the headline ‘Debate ends when we label views we simply disagree with as ‘hatred’’. ‘It is better to debate a question without settling it,’ observed the 18th-century French writer Joseph Joubert, ‘than to settle a question without debating it.’ How naive that sounds today. In this age […]

Categories: Free Speech, Justice & Liberties, Women • Tags: bigotry, censorship, feminism, free speech, hate speech, joseph joubert, kathleen stock, maghan murphy, transgender, twitter, women's rights

CROWNED WITH NO FALSE PATRIOTIC WREATH

November 19, 2018 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on nationalism, patriotism and civic pride, was my Observer column this week. (The column included also a short piece on academics publishing controversial ideas anonymously). It was published in the Observer, 18 November 2018, under the headline ‘Patriotism is meaningless if it doesn’t embrace acts of defiance’. Nationalism, the French president Emmanuel Macron suggested at last week’s Armistice commemoration in Paris, ‘is a betrayal of patriotism’. The phrase made the headlines, not least because it was seen as a rebuke […]

Categories: Politics • Tags: britain, civic pride, civil society, colin kaepernick, emmanuel macron, langston hughes, nationalism, patriotism

MADNESS, MADNESS, THEY CALL IT GLADNESS

November 16, 2018 by Kenan Malik

Trojan Records is 50 years old this year. It was the label that, together with Island Records (founded a decade earlier in 1958), introduced first ska, then reggae, to Britain. To celebrate the 50th anniversary, a new film, Rudeboy, has been released. It is, as the blurb says, ‘a film about the origins and ongoing love affair between Jamaican and British youth culture’. It’s a wonderful film, and an even better soundtrack. And it got me delving back into my […]

Categories: Culture & Books • Tags: bluebeat, music, reggae, ska, trojan records

TERRIBLE CRIMES AND TAWDRY DEBATES

November 12, 2018 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on Asian ‘grooming gangs’ and the debate about them,, was my Observer column this week. It was published on 11 November 2018, under the headline ‘We’re told 84% of grooming gangs are Asian. But where’s the evidence?’ Few debates about academic methodology result in a researcher being labelled a ‘posh socialist ‘activdemic’’ or another being told that her work is akin to a BNP leaflet. But this is no ordinary academic debate. It’s about Asian ‘grooming gangs’ and a report on the issue […]

Categories: Atheism & Religion, Britain • Tags: asian grooming gangs, britain, british asians, british muslims, ceop, child sexual exploitation, ella cockbain, grooming gangs, haras rafiq, islam, maajid nawaz, muna adil, nazir afzal, quilliam, racism

BLOOD, SOIL AND CITIZENSHIP

November 5, 2018 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on notions of citizenship, was my Observer column this week. (The column included also a short piece on bootlegging and Bob Dylan). It was published in the Observer, 4 November 2018, under the headline ‘Myths about shared culture have no place in the citizenship debate’. What links Mike Leigh’s new film, Peterloo, to Donald Trump’s threat to deprive children born to undocumented migrants of the right to US citizenship? It might seem an odd question, best left to Only Connect fans. But answering […]

Categories: Justice & Liberties, Politics, Race & Immigration • Tags: 14th amendment, birthright citizenship, britain, citizenship, Class, donald trump, eric kaufmann, france, jus sanguinis, jus soli, michael walzer, mike leigh, peterloo, usa

NIGHT SHAPES ON THE SOUTHBANK

November 2, 2018 by Kenan Malik

I published a post a while back on the brutalism of London’s Southbank. That brutalism looks very different at night, darkness giving a different shape, as it were, to form and colour. Most of these photos were taken about a week ago, though a couple are from my earlier post.

Categories: Photos • Tags: architecture, brutalism, london, night, photography, southbank

BLASPHEMY, RELIGIOUS AND SECULAR

October 29, 2018 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on a European Court of Human Rights ruling and on changing forms of blasphemy law, was my Observer column this week. (The column included also a short piece on the contrast between the EU’s response to Italy on immigration and the budget). It was published in the Observer, 28 October 2018, under the headline ‘None of us should enjoy the right to have our beliefs shielded from abuse‘. Should it be illegal to call the prophet Muhammad […]

Categories: Atheism & Religion, Free Speech • Tags: blasphemy, censorship, european court of human rights, free speech, gay news, iqbal sacranie, islam, james kirkup, mary whitehouse, muhammad