First David Goodhart (Director of the Demos thinktank) was tortured by Jonathan Portes in an ordeal by statistical nit-picking.
Then he was banned from the Hay literary festival, and subsequently cashiered out of "the left" by arch-lefty arbiter Owen Jones in a series of tweets on his Twitter site.
Now he has been denounced by Yasmin Alibhai-Brown in an article for the Independent newspaper in which she calls him a "neo-Powellite nationalist" http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/the-governments-shameful-scapegoating-of-immigrants-8745342.html
He is being targetted in this way because of his book The British Dream which questions the benefits of immigration.
Ms Alibhai-Brown needs to be careful. Powellism is capable of very precise definition (there were no fuzzy thoughts from Enoch Powell). Were her intemperate comment to be brought before a court she and her counsel would struggle to prove that David Goodhart was neo-Powellite - indeed in my opinion she would entirely fail to prove it; a heavy compensation award would be made against her and the Independent; and she would have her backside soundly kicked (in a legal manner of speaking).
Then he was banned from the Hay literary festival, and subsequently cashiered out of "the left" by arch-lefty arbiter Owen Jones in a series of tweets on his Twitter site.
Now he has been denounced by Yasmin Alibhai-Brown in an article for the Independent newspaper in which she calls him a "neo-Powellite nationalist" http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/the-governments-shameful-scapegoating-of-immigrants-8745342.html
He is being targetted in this way because of his book The British Dream which questions the benefits of immigration.
Ms Alibhai-Brown needs to be careful. Powellism is capable of very precise definition (there were no fuzzy thoughts from Enoch Powell). Were her intemperate comment to be brought before a court she and her counsel would struggle to prove that David Goodhart was neo-Powellite - indeed in my opinion she would entirely fail to prove it; a heavy compensation award would be made against her and the Independent; and she would have her backside soundly kicked (in a legal manner of speaking).
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