Roger Scruton and the New Left, National Review. Ron Capshaw (Dec '15)

In his new book, Roger Scruton offers a diagnosis of and an antidote to the New Left.

‘ ​The important thing is that you should not argue with [Communists]. . . . Whatever you say, they have ways of twisting it into shapes which put you in some lower category of mankind, ‘Fascist,’ ‘Liberal,’ ‘Trotskyist,’ and disparage you both intellectually and personally in the process.”

Groupthink in the Ivory Tower, Wall Street Journal. Barton Swaim (Dec15) 

How did an ideology supposedly predicated on struggle and revolution become the worldview of tenured professors with hefty pension plans?

In 1985, the English philosopher and polymath Roger Scruton published a book titled “Thinkers of the New Left” in which he systematically exposed the bogus intellectual underpinnings of 14 leftist intellectuals, among them Jean-Paul Sartre, Michel Foucault, György Lukács and Eric Hobsbawm.

Fools, Frauds and Firebrands review – a demolition of socialist intellectuals. Steven Poole for The Guardian (December 15)

The New Left is rather old news. Hence the title change for this new version of Roger Scruton’s critique of rampant intellectual socialism, which was originally published in 1985 as simply Thinkers of the New Left.

Fools, Frauds and Firebrands - reviewed by Patricia Duffaud for The Book Bag

Thinkers of the New Left first came out in 1985, under Thatcher's government. British left-wing intellectuals gave it savage reviews. The publisher was threatened with a boycott and the book was withdrawn from bookshops. Roger Scruton feels this caused his university career to decline. In the introduction, he says he is reluctant to return to the scene of such a disaster.

Why we need grammar schools. Spectator Life (5 December 15)

Keeping high culture alive is vital for the preservation of peace and democracy.

The news that England is to have its first new grammar school in 50 years elicited a hostile reaction from almost the whole of the left. This was predictable. For there is a tension between our democratic culture and the kind of traditional education you’d expect to find at a good grammar school.

Roger Scruton vs Polly Toynbee Debate

Hot on the heels of the Corbyn earthquake, this timely Guardian Live debate was refereed by LBC's James O'Brien. It took place on 19 November 2015 at Islington Assembly Hall, London.

You can listen to an audio recording of the event using this link.

Frauds of the left, Siblings. Thinking Allowed, BBC Radio 4 (Dec 25) 

'Frauds' of the Left: Laurie Taylor examines the intellectual credibility of key thinkers of the New Left. Roger Scruton, argues that the modern academy is gripped by a form of 'group think' which fails to challenge the positions of theorists such as Michel Foucault and Antonio Gramsci. Has left wing fashion trumped credible argument? They're joined by Mark Fisher, Lecturer in Visual Culture at Goldsmiths, University of London.

Living with a Mind by Roger Scruton. First Things Journal (Dec 15)

"I was brought up in a culture that made no special place for the “intellectual” as a distinct human type, and which regarded learning in the same way as any other hobby: harmless and excusable, so long as you kept quiet about it.

****THE EBISS FULL PROGRAMME HAS NOW BEEN RELEASED**** FIND OUT MORE HERE

This event will take place between Sunday June 19th and Saturday June 25th 2016, at Bloomfield House Hotel, Co. Westmeath, Ireland.

In almost every public place today the ears are assailed by the sound of pop music. In shopping malls, public houses, restaurants, hotels and elevators the ambient sound is not human conversation but the music disgorged into the air by speakers - usually invisible and inaccessible speakers that cannot be punished for their impertinence.