One of the first things I did when I received a copy of The Establishment by Owen Jones was to turn to the Index and look up "immigration". As post-war immigration has been an immense social change (perhaps the biggest social change in modern times) which has occurred without the agreement of the majority of ordinary people one might suppose that a book on the Establishment might help to reveal who in the elite has effected this influx of millions of foreigners, and given them rights of settlement and rights to vote and rights to claim welfare benefits. At last, I thought, we might get to the truth on this issue.
Unfortunately, there are only seven references to immigration in the Index.
All of them relate to immigrants as a target of "bigotry" and how they are unrepresented in the nation's institutions, particularly Parliament.
Despite referring many times to the 1950s, there is no analysis in The Establishment on how the Establishment (whether through incompetence or deliberate act) effected the entry of millions of immigrants without anyone ever voting on the issue.
This rather indicates that The Establishment is going to be an intellectually dishonest book.
From the Index I turned to the Acknowledgements where the author lists all the people who helped him during the course of writing the book. Thirty-three people are listed. As far as I can tell only one of these (Mehdi Hasan) is a BME person.
Which rather suggests that there has been institutional bigotry in the production and editing of this book.
The Establishment by Owen Jones - 1 http://afroml.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/the-establishment-by-owen-jones.html
Unfortunately, there are only seven references to immigration in the Index.
All of them relate to immigrants as a target of "bigotry" and how they are unrepresented in the nation's institutions, particularly Parliament.
Despite referring many times to the 1950s, there is no analysis in The Establishment on how the Establishment (whether through incompetence or deliberate act) effected the entry of millions of immigrants without anyone ever voting on the issue.
This rather indicates that The Establishment is going to be an intellectually dishonest book.
From the Index I turned to the Acknowledgements where the author lists all the people who helped him during the course of writing the book. Thirty-three people are listed. As far as I can tell only one of these (Mehdi Hasan) is a BME person.
Which rather suggests that there has been institutional bigotry in the production and editing of this book.
The Establishment by Owen Jones - 1 http://afroml.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/the-establishment-by-owen-jones.html
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