From Parliament to street protest: ‘we are reliving 1968, but bigger’ (Financial Times)
The Financial Times sometimes publishes pieces that might not appear in the less specialist media and Simon Kuper’s piece in the FT magazine (22.8) on protest is a case in point.
He argues ‘we are reliving 1968, but bigger: an almost invariably peaceful street is replacing the parliament as the main arena of opposition’.
Kuper points out that protests against Donald Trump when he was elected in 2016 and now Black Lives Matter has dwarfed the size of previous protests.
He makes some further points. Firstly that most of the protests end up being lost. Secondly that most protesters ‘have no formal affiliations’ and thirdly that in order to effect change in his view, an attachment to a political party is required. Fourthly that there is a new generation of protesters worldwide and they are mostly young.
These are points to be discussed but they do provide a context to Andy Beckett’s article in the Guardian (22.8) which ponders why given his incompetence Boris Johnson still enjoys support. Perhaps because people see power being contested in other arenas than Parliament.
Leave a Reply