Last night I went to the magnificent launch of STANDPOINT magazine at the Wallace Collection in Manchester Square. It was a superb venue for a launch and did them proud. The magazine itself is beautifully produced, with a huge amount of content. It's certainly not a magazine you could read on the loo! I make no pretence of being an intellectual and in some ways a lot of the articles go completely over my head, and in that sense it is very much the right of centre equivalent of PROSPECT - and a long overdue one. Even many on the left accept that the right is where the intellectual action is at the moment, and I suspect the magazine will get quite a lot of subscribers from surprising quarters.Interestingly, several people I spoke to last night asked me how TOTAL POLITICS will be different from STANDPOINT. Well, there are only 25 more days until you can find out. We go on sale on 23 June.
An interesting start, if the on-line version is anything to go by.
ReplyDeleteIt is not what I would call intellectual, in the sense that it synthesises common and current ideas to create new ones, neither does is sum up concepts in novel ways (Roger Scruton it ain't)but the writing style is lucid,devoid of cant and rant (something we can learn from)and the opinions given are open opinions that are ready to bare themselves for discussion.
Standpoint seems to have decided to kick off by addressing a shopping list of centre-right concerns, such as religious freedom, minority tyranny and relativism, artistic freedom, etc, and if this helps people to focus on the issues facing us then all well and good.
An article on how artists are scared to tackle Islam by Douglas Murray covered the bases but needed to develop a thesis on why our society was tolerant of this creeping censorship and how it can be tackled.
James Delingpole, writing about the vibe being lost at Glastonbury, should have know what we all knew years ago when the high street banks opened portakabins and cash points on the festival site and ticket costs were more than a week's wages for a strawberry picker.
Daniel Johnson's piece on "Thumos" should start the ball rolling, but only scratches the surface, philosophically speaking.
I hope in future, it might offer some more analysis in depth and suggest some solutions.
@Mr Dale
ReplyDeleteIs 'Standpoint' the magazine you were talking about launching?
Iain,
ReplyDeleteThe STANDPOINT article about the MOD and its culture, paradigms and resultant fitness for purpose is spot on.Just the sort of thing one would hope to see in a Manifesto. Can you arrange for a copy/link to fall into suitable hands?http://standpointmag.co.uk/the-mole-june
regards
Mwmbwls
My interest drained away when I saw the name of Michael Gove on the Advisory Board. A self-regarding énarque like Michael Gove is not qualified to advise on anything except self-satisfaction.
ReplyDeleteI was looking forward to the publication of Standpoint before I read the editor's proud boast that the people he'd signed up to write for it were: V.S.Naipaul, Tom Stoppard, Melanie Phillips, Yasmin Alibi Brown, Polly Toynbee....
ReplyDeleteNothing new there then.
How will all these new journals make any money, though?
ReplyDeleteStandpoint have certainly reached a high point with their web advertising - pages that leap out at you if you move your cursor anywhere near them have a way of grabbing your attention, although they can be a little off putting...
ReplyDeleteMax
http://theerrorlog.blogspot.com/
Isn't it mostly just a lot of the same people who used to write for the Spectator or Daily Telegraph, plus a bit of neo-con stuff to reflect the funding?
ReplyDeleteI make no pretence of being an intellectual.
ReplyDeleteThank god for that. I do not think many of us will be shocked with that particular revelation.
However it would be a good idea if you filled your head every now and again with something a little higher up the literary scale then the Daily News-Papers and party political blogs.
What also would be very nice indeed is if you could give us all an honest opinion on the REAL inclinations of David Cameron. Even if you don't know the man personally, you must know plenty that do, they cant have all been gaged.
Personally I think Cameron comes over very well indeed and is clearly highly intelligent. Too intelligent maybe for our own good, certainly not his own.
For Cameron to be even a half Thatcher would be great and more then we can now expect, given the almost complete take over of this country by the establishments love child The EU.
So Iain can we expect Cameron to stand up for the interests of the people of this country half of the time at least or not?
If you do not have an opinion now thats fine. But can you please go and find one ASAP.
Atlas
Just bought a copy this morning (only seems to be available from WHSmiths).
ReplyDelete