The Namier de nos jours
8:27am
Last night, The Spectator hosted its first book launch at our new home in Old Queen Street. And how apt that it should be in honour of The Triumph of The Political Class (Simon and Schuster, £18.99), by our very own Contributing Editor, Peter Oborne. You can read some of the arguments advanced in this splendid book in this week's Spectator - a cover piece which has already ruffled many a ministerial feather. Peter is emerging as the Namier de nos jours: a meticulous and fearless analyst of the social and political structures of our time, as well as a fearless truth-teller. He often teases me about being (supposedly) too close to the "Political Class": certainly it is hard to imagine a journalist less beholden to that group than Peter, and that is what makes him so remarkable and so special. As I said in my toast to him last night, it cannot be long before he writes a volume entitled They're all Lying Bastards, You Know: and, I for one, would queue up to buy it.
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Comments
Tiberius
September 18th, 2007 9:25amThe piece in this week's magazine was compelling. It explained very lucidly how the transformation from open (some may say honest) politics developed to the version we have now. This is a book for my Christmas present list.
hogarth zombie
September 18th, 2007 11:26amP Oborne gets it. He knows that they ARE a lot of lying bastards
Bottiethweilus
September 18th, 2007 3:33pmPeter Oborne has done little more than give capital letters to a part of the Establishment that has always existed, however different its 'dress code' and modes of expression. He virtually concedes this when he compares the Political Class to "a professional group, like the Bar Council" or the BMA. His dislike (much of which I share) of today's political mores (not all that novel) is not a good enough reason to disestablish the Establishment. The bust of Henry Fairlie (if you have one) should not yet be turned to face the wall.