This time last year I wrote an essay on my Brexit experiences
that was retweeted by a couple of famous folk, and read nearly 2000 times. I captured
what happened subsequently on ‘my Brexit journey’ a couple of posts ago, and
have no intention of repeating any of that. Indeed, I’m going to largely – but not
completely – avoid current politics. So many words have been written in the last
few weeks it would be amazing if I had anything original to offer.
I don't think I have, so instead, I’m going to introduce you to a selection of the
people who have given me pause for thought this year across a range of
subjects, explain why I like them and their ideas, and make recommendations for
you to discover them too if you’re not already familiar with their oeuvre. Interestingly,
given my politics, three of the five describe themselves as ‘liberal’ or ‘left
of centre’, one’s an apolitical figure, and the last one is, well, the last one
is [spoiler alert], James Delingpole. So, in no particular order:
- Paul Embery – Paul is a firefighter and trade unionist, and was on the executive council of the Fire Brigades Union until he was thrown off it earlier this year. I’m sure the FBU would quote some technical breach of an obscure union rule as the reason for that, but the truth is he was removed after expressing his pro-Brexit views. Paul now writes for Unherd.com, and tweets prodigiously too (@PaulEmbery). On podcasts, he’s eloquent, balanced and sensible. I suspect Paul’s views differ from mine on just about everything bar Brexit (and the importance of upholding democracy), but he comes across as that modern rarity – someone of the left with whom you could have a proper discussion in good faith, without getting the impression they think you’re beyond the pale or morally reprehensible for disagreeing with them. An honourable and decent opponent in other words. With a Labour Party of a different time, he’d be on course for a Cabinet position if that’s what he wanted.
- The Triggernometry podcast, featuring Konstantin Kisin and Francis Foster – both are now comedians (Francis is a former teacher), Konstantin arguably the more famous one. But their podcasts are largely serious, albeit interspersed with humour. The format is roughly the same each week – about an hour interviewing people generally on the fringes of public consciousness, but nevertheless interesting and quite frequently experts in their field. The questioning style is gentle, but probing, and elicits great, insightful conversations of the type that just aren’t found in more mainstream media these days. I highly recommend it. And the final question they always ask (“what is the one thing we should be talking about that we’re not?”) is genius when it comes to eliciting some unexpected responses.
- Rory Sutherland – I confess to a bit of both bias and pride here. Rory was a couple of years ahead of me at Christ’s, Cambridge in the mid-80s, and I remember his mop of curly hair well, as I’m pretty sure we lived on adjoining staircases in 3rd Court. Anyway, Rory is vice-chairman of Ogilvy Group, the ad agency, and has become something of a star in recent years due to his fortnightly column in The Spectator, and his brilliant TED talks and other YouTube appearances. He’s fascinating and insightful on many subjects, but if I had to be totally banal and extract just one thing I’ve taken from his work, it’s this: considering how to address lots of apparent problems/challenges should be considered from a psychological point of view, not just a logical, economic or engineering point of view. That way, the solutions can often prove cheaper, easier to implement and more effective. He wouldn’t have spent £6bn on building the HS1 network from London to the coast, he’d have “spent £1bn, by putting great wifi on the trains, then paying some of the world’s finest male and female supermodels to walk up and down them handing out free Chateau Petrus; passengers would have been begging for the trains to be slowed down rather speeded up”. He has more prosaic, but equally interesting examples, some of which can be found in his book: Alchemy: the surprising power of ideas that don’t make sense. Highly recommended.
- Jonathan Haidt – Jon is an American social psychologist and academic. He’s a gently spoken, mild, self-described liberal (in the US sense of that term). But he, his books and lectures pack a common sense punch, explaining and exposing many of the Woke and mental health madnesses of the modern, English-speaking world. I recommend The Coddling of the American Mind, written by Jon and Greg Lukianoff.
- The Delingpod, with James Delingpole – I couldn’t complete my list without including one rabid right-winger, and James and his podcast are my choice. I’m a Special Friend (podcast in-joke). If you know James’ work as a journalist, commentator, TV reviewer or from his occasional TV appearances, you’ll have made your mind up about him. Your opinion will, I suspect, be determined by your political leanings. That said, by no means all his podcast guests are ‘political’ (a recent conversation was with Trinny Woodall), which is one of the reasons it’s so listenable. The others are James’ slightly effete and butter-wouldn’t-melt manner, and the fact his obvious (and admitted) lack of research counterintuitively leads to some natural-feeling and fascinating conversations. Try it.
There we are. I could have included many others, and so I’ll
mention a few in despatches: Douglas Murray, Andrew Doyle, Helen Dale and Claire
Lehmann (and Quillette in general). If you need a bit of mental stimulation
over Christmas, look any of them up.
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