Laurie Penny writes an article that is ostensibly about Greece, but is actually about her and her cool friends impossibly debauched boho lifestyle. A small fanclub of people who aspire to this then buy the New Statesman and read Laurie Penny's articles so they can feel close to this lifestyle, feel like they're a part of the scene too. And look she follows me on twitter, I'm legitimately part of it too! Grubby victorian street urchins pressing their face against the glass of the royal carriage to feel close to the royal family....
At any rate, any sort of radical political allegience is just another affectation, like the rollies, like the tea etc. People ask why she writes like that, it's because that's what she's selling, the lifestyle. The politics is neither here nor there - as her more serious attempts to deal with politics have exposed.
In some ways I wouldn't mind. If it was totally apolitical Liz Jones for the Left then I'd probably never have given a shit. It's the idea that there's somehow a profound political vision that underpins it, that is vastly superior to anything we ourselves (as mere normals) would be able to think up.
At any rate, any sort of radical political allegience is just another affectation, like the rollies, like the tea etc. People ask why she writes like that, it's because that's what she's selling, the lifestyle. The politics is neither here nor there - as her more serious attempts to deal with politics have exposed.
In some ways I wouldn't mind. If it was totally apolitical Liz Jones for the Left then I'd probably never have given a shit. It's the idea that there's somehow a profound political vision that underpins it, that is vastly superior to anything we ourselves (as mere normals) would be able to think up.
