Articles
Me versus myself
I work against myself through procrastination, distraction and addiction. Why do I consistently sabotage my own life?
Aeon, July 2024
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Why our dependence on satnavs is a step in the wrong direction
Monocle, August 2024
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History for Tomorrow by Roman Krznaric review – looking back, moving forward
From Arab scholars to hippy mothers, can history offer forgotten answers to modern problems?
The Guardian, 10 July 2024
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The Price of Life by Jenny Kleeman review – what’s it worth?
A riveting examination of the value we place on human life – from healthcare to hitmen
The Guardian, 27 March 2024
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Necessity or Compulsion?
I have never owned a smartphone. The man in the shop couldn’t understand my refusal. ‘You get one free with your plan,’ he told me. I share the objections on questions of principle – the ubiquity of harmful content; the erosion of the social fabric – but more than that my response was visceral. I just didn’t want the thing in my hand.
The LRB blog, 15 February 2024
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Boring Dystopia
On the Difficulty of Doing Nothing
On the Contradictions of Modern Self-Help Culture
In 2023 I wrote these three essays for The Monocle Companion (printed editions).
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When voters get it wrong
When politicians use propaganda and outright deception, we must acknowledge that voters cannot always make the right decision at the ballot box
25 April 2023
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The LRB blog, 13 May 2022
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Why motherhood is intensely political
In 1970, the British Women’s Liberation Movement held its first conference at Ruskin College in Oxford. Among its four key demands were free twenty-four-hour nurseries....
Political Quarterly, 22 February 2022
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Failing the test: the perversity of England’s exams
More summer chaos has exposed the way our school assessments somehow combine neurosis, narrowness, inequality and a lack of rigour. We can do better for our young people
Prospect, 27 August 2021
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At a time when the gulf between the 0.1 per cent and the 99.9 per cent is wider than ever, it is ironic that the primary political divide is now along the lines of educational attainment, cultural values, and whether you live in a city or a town.
Political Quarterly, 19 July 2021
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Eliane Glaser asks whether new so-called 'flexible' working patterns actually just leave women behind. Again.
Grazia, 16 June 2021
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Parent trap: why the cult of the perfect mother has to end
Worldwide, mothers are overworked, underpaid, often lonely and made to feel guilty about everything from epidurals to bottle feeding. Fixing this is the unfinished work of feminism
The Guardian, 18 May 2021
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Revolutions by Hannah Ross review – the story of women on two wheels
From the Pankhursts delivering newsletters to a racing team in Saudi Arabia ... an engaging history, full of colourful characters, of women and cycling
The Guardian, 27 March 2021
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How have we been tricked into thinking that cultural excellence is elitist?
New Humanist, 18 March 2021
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Homeschooling has revealed the absurdity of England’s national curriculum
My eight-year-old daughter is being called to spot expanded noun phrases. My 11-year-old son fills in checklists of "success criteria." Are we raising children or robots?
Prospect, 28 February 2021
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The revolution will be institutionalised
The great liberal promise is that power must always be held to account. Agreed political rules and formal institutions are the means to honour it. But they are under assault by a populist right—and a misguided left
Prospect, 5 December 2020
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Belgium’s experiment in a new kind of democracy
As Britain goes to the polls, the Belgians are turning to randomly-chosen representatives. Could they do any better?
Prospect, 11 November 2019
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With “cancel culture” political correctness has indeed gone mad
The opposite of intolerance used to be tolerance. But as ideology has given way to identity, it has become intolerance of intolerance instead. On platforms like Twitter, a posturing left exists in unwitting symbiosis with the angry right.
Prospect, 11 November 2019
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In the thirty years since Francis Fukuyama declared that history had ‘ended’ with the decisive victory of Western liberal democracy over all other ideologies, his thesis has been mocked as facile, triumphalist or just plain wrong; but it has never quite gone away. This year it could even be said to be having a moment.
The LRB blog, 8 October 2019
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Ten years ago today, the Telegraph began publishing, in daily instalments, the expense claims made by British MPs over the previous four years. The humiliating examples were laid out like the yard sale of a bankrupt family: digital radios, hobnobs, light bulbs, fluffy dusters, scatter cushions, ice cube trays and toilet brushes.
The LRB blog, 8 May 2019
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I’m an opinionated Jew with a PhD in the history of antisemitism, but I find it daunting to weigh in on the debate about antisemitism in the Labour Party. To describe the accusations as disproportionate is to risk being branded an antisemite. But while genuine instances of antisemitism should be tackled, there is no more of it in Labour than in other parties.
The LRB blog, 8 March 2019
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Words of power: the best books on leadership
As Theresa May steps aside, Eliane Glaser selects books examining authority from Machiavelli to Daphne du Maurier.
The Guardian, 7 June 2019
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Clear Bright Future by Paul Mason review – in the midst of crisis, a work of radical optimism
The current chaos contains the seeds of revolutionary change, argues the author of PostCapitalism. We need to challenge markets, take control of technology and consider what it means to be human.
The Guardian, 26 April 2019
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Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez – a world designed
From the ‘one-size-fits-men’ approach to smartphone design to the medical trials that are putting women’s lives at risk … this book uses data like a laser.
The Guardian, 28 February 2019
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The two-party system is dysfunctional, outdated—but worth hanging on to
The alternatives look shiny and spontaneous but they’re oligarchy in disguise.
Prospect, 9 June 2019
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I contributed a piece to the National Interest Symposium.
National Interest 13 September 2018
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How the Right Undermined the State (and How the Left Let it Happen).
Political Quarterly 23 July 2018
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Bullshit Jobs: A Theory by David Graeber review – the myth of capitalist efficiency
Is your job one that makes the world a better place? If not, it is probably bullshit, part of a system that is keeping us under control.
The Guardian, 25 May 2018
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Anti-system’ populism is a ruse. To effect change, the left needs to make a case for the crucial role legitimate authority can play.
The Guardian, 9 April 2018
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How Democracies Die: What History Tells Us about Our Future, by Steven Levitsky
and Daniel Ziblatt.
The Times Higher, 8 March 2018
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I appeared on BBC Radio 3’s Free Thinking discussing bureaucracy.
BBC, 22 February 2018
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Review: Brexit and British Politics
Review: Brexit and British Politics by Geoffrey Evans and Anand Menon.
The Times Higher, 30 November 2017
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It’s Time for a Cooperative University
A Cooperative University Must Ensure High Standards.
The Times Higher, 30 November 2017
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My review of The Wealth Paradox: Economic Prosperity and the Hardening of Attitudes, by Frank Mols and Jolanda Jetten.
The Times Higher, 3 August 2017
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The Left is Having a Moment. Here’s How to Make it Last.
The Washington Post, 29 September 2017
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Politicians as parents – enough with mean austerity
The fiction of financial constraint perpetuated by the budget allows authority figures to treat us like children – but it’s time we understood the facts.
The Guardian, 9 March 2017
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In Defence of Elites
A column entitled ‘I am a member of the intellectual, liberal elite – it’s time we stood up for ourselves and our ideas’.
The Independent, 2 February 2017
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Defending progressive elitism on BBC Radio 3’s Free Thinking.
BBC, 30 November 2016
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In Defence of the Metropolitan Elite
Railing against low-paid academics will not solve Britain's inequality problem.
The New Statesman, 20 October 2016
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Red tape’s true role, and how to cut free of it
The write up of an event I organised at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London on bureaucracy, with David Graeber, Mark Fisher, Jeremy Gilbert, and Pil and Galia Kollectiv.
Times Higher Education Supplement. 9 July 2015
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BBC Radio 4’s Four Thought – The progressive case for authority
On 1 July 2015 I presented an edition of Four Thought on ‘The Progressive Case for Authority’.
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Tell her the truth – the real history of natural childbirth
A review of Lamaze: An International History by Paula Michaels; about the dark history of the natural childbirth movement.
London Review of Books, 4 June 2015
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Bureaucracy: why won’t scholars break their paper chains?
If the form-filling that plagues academia is pointless, why do academics comply with it?
You can fill in a survey about academic bureaucracy here.
Times Higher Education Supplement. 21 May 2015
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Do we need a new way to define ourselves? How the ‘left’
“Left” is a tainted word in our broken establishment: do we need a new way to define ourselves? Post-politics: what has killed our democracy, and can we bring it back to life?
The New Statesman, 25 March 2015
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Nation-states aren’t households
Nation-states aren’t households: debating their economies as if they are is stupid.
Our economic debate is conducted in terms of household budgets – a handbag economy. But the economy isn’t a handbag, and this “debate” closes down real alternatives to the neoliberal consensus.
The New Statesman, 9 March 2015
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The cult of natural childbirth has gone too far
A report condemning midwife ‘musketeers’ of Morecambe Bay brought back memories of my own emergency caesarean. Being bullied into a natural birth is not what I call feminism.
The Guardian, 5 March 2015
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If ideology is dead, how can the new politics find its voice?
Neoliberalism and the crisis of politics.
The New Economics Foundation, 5 March 2015
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Touchscreen technology is good for kids? Don’t believe the hype
Big Tech is using literacy and poverty reduction as fig leaves for the aggressive marketing of tablets to children.
The Guardian, 3 December 2014
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It’s class, not whether a baby is breastfed, that determines life chances
Paying working-class women to breastfeed stigmatises them, and makes middle-class women feel even more guilty if they feed their babies formula.
The Guardian, 24 November 2014
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Alibis: Sigmar Polke 1963-2010 at Tate Modern, London
Cultural and political critique rarely makes me laugh out loud. But then cultural and political critique rarely involves performing monkeys, interactions with turkey basters, levitating scissors or telepathic communications with William Blake.
Times Higher Education Supplement, 9 October 2014
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The left must articulate an ideology or we will be condemned to live with
someone else’s.
OpenDemocracy, 19 August 2014
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Why politicians should stop dismissing the importance of ideology
We need ideas and idealism as well as processes and action; our problem is not too much politics, but not enough.
The New Statesman, 19 August 2014
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Why do pointless jobs continue to proliferate in these lean times?
Soundings, 2014
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Bring back ideology: Fukuyama’s ‘end of history’ 25 years on
Francis Fukuyama’s influential essay ‘The End of History?’ announced the triumph of liberal democracy and the arrival of a post-ideological world. But was it just a rightwing argument in disguise? And has the demise of utopianism ushered in a ‘sad time’?
The Guardian, 21 March 2014
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The prevailing myth of consumer clout distracts us from the reality of cartel and monopoly. We need to rethink our pushback against corporations.
The Guardian, 25 February 2014
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Prof Brian Cox: physicist or priest?
Instructions to appreciate the wonder of science are everywhere. But while wonder seems an innocuous element of public engagement with science, it serves to reinforce an anti-intellectual hierarchy between scientists and the public.
The Guardian, 1 March 2013
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Trendy Twitter, groovy Google and funky Facebook wield formidable power
Twitter’s suspension of a British journalist shows we should beware the commercial interests and huge power of social media sites. Their cuddly and revolutionary image is a smokescreen.
The Guardian, 1 August 2012
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I’d rather have Thatcher’s explicit ideology than the disavowed politics of coalition, cutting milk while claiming to care.
The Guardian, 19 June 2012
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Modern spin and marketing have made us too easy to fool. It's time to get real
New Humanist, 15 June 2012
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Why David Cameron’s Meat and Potato Act Sticks in my Craw
‘The cupcake is hegemony’s new best friend’. Pastygate is yet another example of Cameron’s fake authenticity – providing an alibi to the politics of austerity and inequality.
The Guardian, 29 March 2012
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Why People Act Against Their Best Interests
‘People aren’t stupid. It sounds egalitarian, but it’s actually reactionary’. This article explores the unfashionable idea of false consciousness and argues that it is key to addressing inequalities of power and status.
The Guardian, 29 Mar 2012
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In the digital age, it seems unthinkable to resist technological progress. But we should never be ruled by our machines, or mistake powerful corporate interests with technological ‘inevitability’.
The Guardian, 17 November 2011
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Belief in ordinary voices is exploited by PRs and politicians skilled in the dark art of astroturfing, a technique that exemplifies the false promises of democratisation and enfranchisement that are sold to us; and we, in turn, are willing consumers of the myth of the level playing field.
The Guardian, 24 June 2009
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In the ‘two cultures’ war, science has won out over the humanities. Science’s new rival is religion, and a new war rages: that between creationists and evolutionists. But this battle is futile. It is the humanities, not the sciences, which have the wherewithal to challenge blind faith. But to do this, the humanities must regain their value in our culture.
The New Humanist (Volume 124 Issue 2 March/April 2009)
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Let’s not sentimentalise the Shoah
Holocaust testimony and memorial culture illustrates a profound ambivalence about the status of survivors and witnesses.
The Jewish Chronicle, 11 December, 2008
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Dozens of holocaust memoirs are published each year, and they are received with reverence. Confusion reigns as to whether or not it is appropriate to assess them critically, as books, and reading them becomes a matter of duty and masochistic desire.
The London Review of Books, 20 November 2008
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Parenting is an imperfect business, learned on the job
Motherhood is increasingly idealised in our culture, rendering the ambivalent reality of bringing up children a taboo. Our reverence for the pre-eminently natural maternal bond undermines claims that mothers and fathers should be aiming for equality in childcare.
The Guardian, 25 February 2008
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If Britain really wants to integrate all its religious minorities, it must first separate church and state.
The Guardian, 19 December 2007
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In the wake of the supposed failure of the multiculturalist ‘experiment’, British political leaders are resurrecting the Victorian idea of tolerance as a ‘core British value’. But the tradition of Great British Tolerance is historically questionable, and to require immigrants and minorities to subscribe to such a nebulous concept is intolerably coercive.
The New Humanist (Volume 122 Issue 3 May/June 2007)
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Stitch Up! How 1950s domesticity became modern ‘empowerment’
We are fetishising 1950s domesticity and presenting it as the modern woman’s choice.
The New Humanist (Volume 121 Issue 1 January/February 2006)
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The new fashion for old-fashioned, lavish weddings is a sign of our almost pathological desire to restore meaning to an institution that has lost its authenticity. But it’s also evidence of a resurgence of conservative, anti-feminist values.
The New Humanist (Volume 119 Issue 5 September/October 2004)
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Reports of a rise of ‘the new anti-semitism’ are overstated and function as a way of deflecting criticism of Israel’s actions.
The New Humanist (Volume 119 Issue 2 March/April 2004)
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