The virus is both terrible yet creates hope, as kindness and a sense of humanity come through. How is this possible? I wrote my answer under lockdown. As well as proposing what to do now it turned into a history of the past 50 years: I show how a humanisation grew inside the global disorder. It's pamphlet length at 23,000 words and there is a pdf for easier reading. Also an openDemocracy video debate…

I'm giving a lecture on the lure of Brexit! 19 September at 5.30 in King's College London, get your free ticket here. I support A People's Vote and will talk about how to make sure that, if we get a new referendum it will not be a repeat of the last one. All the best, Anthony

 

I've just published an open letter you can read here to my fellow Remainers. I predicted in the book that "Brexit will collapse. The sooner, the less excruciating the pain". This opens a mini-series on speeding things up! I also replied to David Edgar in the LRB. Thanks again for your support, especially if you are a Brexiteer. Anthony

I'm talking about Brexitannia at King's College London this Thursday at 5pm and in Winchester a week later. All welcome. In Lure I said Brexit will happen and will fail. Time to test the argument!

Dear subscribers, you may have noticed that no London newspaper reviewed or engaged with Lure of Greatness in print. Now, the Guardian has redeemed the situation with a magisterial leader. You can read it here. All the best for 2018! Anthony 

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jan/01/the-guardian-view-on-renewing-the-united-kingdom

Dear all, here is the Guardian's online politics editor's wonderful short review of Lure (in full below). I'm launching Wales for Europe in Cardiff on the 5th, already sold out. Labour Tube have a 50 minutes interview starting with longest "brief answer" in history (12 mins!) as I summarise the book. And the video of last month's meeting with Caroline Lucas, Clive Lewis, Suzanne Moore and me with…

Last call for the meeting tomorrow, Haloween Tuesday 31 October, from 7.30, book here. I'll join Caroline Lucas, who has a piece about it in the Guardian online. Also Labour MP Clive Lewis, Suzanne Moore and John Harris. Tickets from Eventbrite. It will be filmed if you can't get to London. Plus, I replied to a critic of my analysis of the English nature of Brexit in openDemocracy. Which then ran…

The wonderful Caroline Lucas and Labour’s Clive Lewis, who resigned from the shadow cabinet to oppose Brexit, join me and Suzanne Moore on Tuesday 31 October at London’s Emmanuel Centre (tickets here). The Guardian’s John Harris will moderate. It will be a discussion of Brexit with a difference. A panel of Remainers exploring how to reverse the outcome.

Why different?

Because most Remainers…

We have made a video to get out word of the book. Its getting lots of views and has a terrific cast reading from it. You can see it here. It is also on Facebook being widely viewed. Please share it if you are also on Facebook. There will be a public meeting on 31 October around the book with Caroline Lucas, Suzanne Moore and others. Tickets here.  A cracking review of Lure by Fintan O'Toole enlived…

Before signing and Unbound sending off your copies I went to Grenfell Tower. This is my photo-essay on what it is like (also a comparison with visiting the World Trade Centre after 9/11).

LURE is now at the printers. If all goes well subscribers will have copies before the month's end. Might the election upset the book's analysis? More important, what is going on as it swings? I answer both questions in this article on openDemocracy.  https://opendemocracy.net/anthony-barnett/jeremy-corbyn-catches-spirit-of-brexit

Hi everyone. The Lure of Greatness is about to go to press. This is a final call for those who want to get a beautiful Unbound hardback in June. Otherwise, the trade edition hits the shops at the end of August.

 

The Convention on Brexit takes place on the 12/13th. I'm speaking on 'Is England the problem?' on Saturday afternoon. Link Here for the programme. LURE should be in your hands in late June / early July and in the shops late August. Here is a very generous response from John Mitchison. By all means tell friends & colleagues they can still buy an early copy.

"Hello, I’m John Mitchinson, the publisher…

Hi everyone, this important CONVENTION ON BREXIT: Think Anew, Act Anew, Brexit and the Political Crash, is taking place in Westminster Central Hall 12/13 May. http://www.theconvention.co.uk/ Do join us if you can. It's all the more important with the election as it will ask, What is happening to our democracy? Many of you are speaking. As you can see. Update shortly on Lure. Hope to see you at the…

Hi everyone, I was just plannign an update when up popped the latest suprise. You can read my explanation of May's decision here in openDemocracy and reproduced below. If all goes to plan, subscribers will get LURE in June and it will be published and in the shops in late August. But I'll keep you posted.

The headline reason for Theresa May's 'cut and run' general election does not convince. The…

Hi all, the ms is with the Unbound copyeditor. I have published a response to May's trigger of Article 50 here in openDemocracy. It gives you a taste of some of the argument in the book. You can read it here below as well. I'll send you an update about publication dates shortly. Thanks for your patience, Anthony

As the UK government hands across its letter to the EU triggering Article…

Hi everyone, I talked with Adam Ramsay, editor of openDemocracyUK about yesterday's Brexit vote and also the impact of Trump. He wrote an article and kindly made me the co-author. This is a link to it. The Abdication of the Commons... I am also taking part in the Putney Debate on Friday, More information here: http://www.putneydebates2017.co.uk/putney-debates-2017-programme-details? 

Hi everyone, I have published a quick analysis of the domestic significance of the speech the Prime Minister gave yesterday. Here is a link to it  and I'm copying it below. Anthony

Theresa May’s historic speech at Lancaster House will go down as one of the last manifestoes of English imperialism and perhaps its final call. The latter depends on the response of the other European powers as well…

John Berger was a close and important friend and sometimes collaborator. He died after a short illness on 2 January and I wrote a salute to him the next day. You can read it here: https://opendemocracy.net/anthony-barnett/john-berger-witness-to-human-condition-1926-2017. I'll be going to his funeral in France over the weekend. I will let you all know when Lure is finished, thank you for your patience…

As the UK's Supreme Court gathers to consider whether the government can trigger Article 50 and start the process of leaving the EU using its royal prerogative power, or whether only parliament can do this, I have look at what is really going on. The article was commissioned by the Guardian who published it last week. A slightly longer version is here. It is a theme I will cover in the book.

Whoops! A change of plan. The election of Trump was very painful to witness. First because of its likely impact on the fate of our planet, second for the consequences for everyone in the United States, especially non-whites. I had a small, additional sense of loss. A key argument in my book is that Brexit came about thanks to the exceptional history of England, a country without its own voice…

The US election is not about Brexit but Trump has made it a symbol of right-wing, insurrectionary, white-nativist change. I was in the US for family reasons and watched two of the debates there. Mary Fitzgerald, openDemocracy's Editor-in-Chief and a supporter of the book insisted I write something which she published yesterday. I'll draw on the argument in the book too, and so the Unbound editors…

openDemocracy asked me to respond to the High Court judgement that Parliament not the government must authorise triggering Article 50 to take the UK out of the EU. Here is what I wrote. It sure is making writing the book interesting! It also makes it easier for me to argue that Brexit poses fundamental constitutional questions. If you enjoy it please forward to anyone you think would also like…

St Anthony's College European Studies Centre are kindly hosting a workshop for the book on Wednesday 2nd November from 12.30 to 14.00 with a modest buffet lunch available from 12.15 to 12.30. It will be chaired by Professor Kalypso Nicolaidis in their seminar room at 70 Woodstock Road. If you want to come please register with Ellysia Graymore by emailing her, ellysia.graymore@politics.ox.ac.uk  She…

To celebrate your help in getting WHAT NEXT fully funded and under steam I decided to write a note about what our new Prime Minister represents. Solving this will be crucial for my argument. It has turned into a longer piece than I expected, as is often the case with work in progress. Any comments and suggestions are most welcome. 

What kind of Tory is Theresa May? She has driven her predecessor…

I’ve been told that when pre-orders pass 75%, it’s time for a report to all my backers so far. In the first part of WHAT NEXT I’ll look at how people have responded to the referendum outcome. This has led me to reflect on lies in public life. Are they getting worse? Have we entered a ‘post-truth’ era as it is claimed?

I’ve a specific starting point: the sheer venom of many on the Remain side…

It is best to give a book a working title and then finalise it when it’s done. But to crowdfund I have to pre-announce a title and it feels definitive. This has caused me grief. My original long synopsis I called The Work of Fools. This was lifted from a great protest banner after the referendum, which quoted the full line from Patti Smith’s The People have the Power. I liked it as a title. But…