Conversation: the eclipse of liberalism and the failure of conservatism
I was pleased to have a long video conversation (in two parts) with John O’Sullivan, former senior policy adviser to Margaret Thatcher and now president of the Danube Institute, a think-tank based in Hungary.
Our conversation started by talking about my early years at The Guardian newspaper and my experiences while working there which led me to break with the left. We discussed my play, Traitors (yes, I did write one and it was actually performed at a fringe theatre in London in 1986), my experience of antisemitism which led me to write that play and then, some 15 years later, my shattering conclusion that British Jews had been living in a 50-year fools’ paradise.
We also discussed why English patriotism has become so controversial, the demoralisation of the west and the failure of conservatism to resist the destruction of liberalism by the virus of cultural totalitarianism. Which brought us to our present day’s revolutionary moment with the Black Lives Matter riots and disturbances.
You can watch both videos below.
