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Review: Demons, Dragons and Bogeymen
150/Sue Mew
DATELINE: 25/2/06
Culture Wars: The Media and the British Left by James Curran, Ivor Gaber & Julian Petley, Edinburgh University Press, £14.99
Attempts by the media to demonise political dissent are nothing new. Neither is this confined to British shores or the emergence of the municipal Left during the 1980s and 1990s. This is an issue which has an on-going relevance and currency for all who seek to challenge or question the prevailing political consensus - whether in this country or abroad - and not least the ideological role played by the mainstream media in the construction and demonisation of dissenting voices and politics as ‘political dragons’ and ‘other’.
Culture Wars provides an excellent history and analysis of the emergence of the progressive urban left in British politics post-1979 and throughout nearly two decades of Conservative rule. A history which spans the breakdown of the post-war welfare settlement, the crisis-ridden record of the Wilson/Callaghan government (1974-1979) and the political decline and fragmentation of the Labour Party through to the rise to power of the municipal Left in the form of ‘radical pluralist’ councils such as the Greater London Council (GLC) and the construction and traducing of the ‘loony Left’.
The book covers a lot of detailed ground. It begins with contextualising the emergence during the 1980s of a new progressive politics that shaped the thinking of many municipal left councils, the changing composition of the London Labour Party and the rise to power within the GLC and the ILEA of leading political figures such as Ken Livingstone and Frances Morrell — figures who were influenced by the cultural revolution and values of the 1960s.
An important point made in Culture Wars is how the progressive politics that was a feature of many urban left councils during this period and which sought to connect to new social constituencies, including progressive sections of the middle class, became the subject of debate, political conflict and local government regulation by successive Conservative Governments under the premiership of Margaret Thatcher. The role that the largely right-wing British press played during this period in the vilification of ‘loony left’ councils and leading figures such as Ken Livingstone (Leader of the GLC) and Bernie Grant (Leader of Haringey Council) is well documented in three case studies which examine the scaremongering, ‘loony narratives’ and blatant misrepresentations of municipal left council politics and policies.
Where this book works well is in making the connections between culture, politics and the role of the media in representing, and influencing, social change. Whilst many books have been written about the ‘loony left’ phenomenon of the 1980s and the press stigmatisation of left-wing councils, not all have sought to, or successfully interwoven, the myriad cultural, political and historical strands that comprised this period within British politics.
Not many, if any, books have made the connections between the generational culture wars and values that acted as a vehicle for progressive politics within municipal councils during this period, their subsequent entry into mainstream politics, and the way in perceptions and representations of the ‘loony left’ were strategically used and maintained by a new breed of unelected political mandarins such as Philip Gould and Peter Mandelson in the ‘product differentiation’ and rise to power of ‘New Labour’ as distinct from its ‘other’.
This book provides a well worth read for any one interested in the study of media and dissent. Some of the lessons and connections between past and present should not be hard to make.
Last modified: Saturday, February 25, 2006
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More reporters are currently imprisoned in Turkey than in any other country in the world. Only a matter of weeks ago lawyers failed to persuade a Turkish court to release a 76-year-old journalist from a Turkish internet news station.
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The UK launch of a 'European Citizens' Initiative' calling for EU rules against concentration of media power will take place on Thursday March 21 from 11:00am – 12:30pm in Committee Room 4A at the House of Lords, London. Guest speakers will include actor and activist Hugh Grant (pictured), media consultant Claire Enders, Professor Steven Barnett, Barry McCall (President of the NUJ) and Marc Gruber (Director of the European Federation of Journalists).
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