Walking into the hallowed Firth Hall for my first Off The Shelf event of 2024, the grandeur of my setting was not lost on me – a beautiful building that had retained its appeal throughout the years. However, unlike this setting the topic of discussion, namely the state of British politics from 2000-2024, is less agreeable, and the symbolism of the stage’s blue lighting surrounding this was not lost on me!
Presented by University of Sheffield Professor and Co-Director of the Sheffield Political Economy Research Institute Andrew Hindmoor, he spoke at length about “why we have, effectively, gone into haywire”. Showing some defining images from the past 24 years, the 12 days that made modern Britain, and a very young Keir Starmer, Hindmoor spoke about the miserabilism and short-termism that defines both British politics and the discussions surrounding it, as well as the future of the system and the criticisms he has received for his publication – “all of which were completely wrong”.
Hindmoor has a fantastic way of intertwining important political discourse and debate with well-timed and genuinely comedic interjections, that had be laughing much more than I would ever have expected to when discussing the downturn of British politics. Liz Truss’ premiership to The Queen in the Millennium Dome at the turn of the century, Hindmoor’s talk gains a greater level of traction with these quips, helping to retain audience attention, particularly when discussing complex or abstract topics.
He also spent a significant portion of his lecture and the following question session relating much of what he had said to our current political environment and the future, discussing the Labour Government’s already-over honeymoon period, how he believes “Reform [UK] may have been the winner in 2024” and his belief that Jeremy Corbyn’s 2019 economic plan “may have been the right one”. Following with discussions about this summer’s far-right riots and immigration discourse, Hindmoor clearly intimately understands the situation our country is currently facing and appears to have a good idea as to where we may end up in 2029, should the trends already seen continue.
My one critique of this event was the not uncommon use of technical language, a necessity in this field certainly, but one that occasionally made following the narrative difficult. By discussing often-abstract topics using jargon, some points were lost as I rushed to understand what exactly was being discussed, only sometimes successfully, which given the complexity of the topics in general, was tricky to navigate and still keep pace with the wider topic.
Hindmoor’s book Haywire has a monumental task of explaining the last 24 years of British politics between its covers, but from his Off The Shelf Event, I am certain this book will be an informative, entertaining and thought-provoking read. His miserabilist approach is a sobering reminder of the plight British politics has faced, and is currently facing, and provides an interesting framework to consider what the future may hold.
Rating: ★★★★☆
Haywire was published in June 2024. Other Off the Shelf Festival events can be found here
