The Saturday interview: Stuart Hall

Stuart Hall - the godfather of multiculturalism and a leading cultural theorists in the UK - is more pessimistic about the policies he has been for 30 years. The left, he said, is in serious trouble

Stuart Hall is like a God in the landscape on the left. Not in the sense hyperbolic, the relationship takes place: on the contrary, that any conversation, whether on multiculturalism and feminism, Karl Marx or the open market once it reaches a level of depth, to return to their ideas (I'm almost entirely in uppercase H).

room came to Britain in 1951 and went to Merton College, Oxford as a Rhodes scholar. "Three months at Oxford has convinced me that it was not my house. I am not English and I will never be. I lived life is a partial compensation. I came to England as a means of escape, and was a failure. "He said this with a funny look, as if to say that their movement did not affect his happiness, and its failure seems, if any thing tickled.

He lived here for 60 years and is married to Catherine Hall, Professor at UCL. To sit in the kitchen of his home in Hampstead, with the sun pouring in, on the eve of his 80th birthday, I have this feeling surreal that I'm looking at a university, urban, totally, uncompromising, met with success, the type of academic John Updike might have written when I was young. Hall said that after more fun, ".. It would be - wrong word - an intellectual Academy as I made my money"

He became one of the seminal figures of the New Left Review in the 50s (with Ralph Miliband, the motive or otherwise in his grave policy, set aside), is Interestingly, the memorable ideas that publication, in the Thatcher years and beyond, were often Room coins. Beatrix Campbell, in a letter to the London Review of Books in January this year, mentions the "regressive modernization" of Thatcher, as described by Hall. But his greatest mark in terms of thinking was popular in the area of ??multiculturalism, as a faculty member and later director of the Center for Contemporary Cultural Studies at Birmingham University.

Until recently, the Hall of articulation of the multicultural society that seemed ahead of the fixed 60, improved type of rhetoric that political or social bias can be canceled. He rejects the idea that some academy has been the engine of the new world order. "We drew the line in the 60s. We were here. They were there. Do not go searching for Dunkirk. Never pick up again. I think he made academic gains, but it was what you can think like multicultural drift, than having them [people of other cultures around], they would not eat, no tail. The smartest person in the store is probably black. You turn on the TV and the guy singing is probably black. which meant a lot to get people to think about it. "

And he still maintains that this country has enjoyed for three decades, Bob Marley, is a very different place than what came in. And yet, he says, "I am more pessimistic than the I policy in 30 years. "

This pessimism was not until the failure of multiculturalism, or rather, that the speech last year in which David Cameron has said there was - Chamber takes a mild form , so dismissive, attitude somewhat conservative attitude here commenting that Cameron speaks of equal opportunity legislation, as he sees, rather than multiculturalism as part of the culture. No, this is the state of the left, which seems the most problematic. . "The left is in trouble, have no idea, not an independent analysis of his own, and has a vision that takes the temperature only., 'Wow, this is not good, move to the right . "It makes no sense is education policy, policy changes in the way of seeing things."

The examples are everywhere, but take up the case by pressing the NHS. "How can millions of people have benefited from the NHS and not in the streets to defend him? Come. The NHS is one of the most humane acts that took place in peacetime. The principle that a person should not benefit the health of a sick person is lost. If someone says a health care company in the United States to effectively implement the national health system, it is likely the first to refute this hypothesis. The guidelines have Lost "This was a study recently to investigate why the United States, which spends more per capita on health, were less successful, and the answer was clear. when there is a profit, overinvestigated the rich and the poor are treated. People die needlessly.

So there is quite a strong argument against the pragmatic participation in private health, but Hall is a moral statement, blisters - that could benefit the poor health of someone? What kind of person who would it be? Would you trust them with your budget, let alone their health or that of a loved one? The moral case is not being strong enough position and, in fact, does not all

• Man and all that, and 80, Hall has closely observed the NHS recently, after being diagnosed with kidney failure, spent seven years on dialysis, but at this point, "at he is killed and is keeping him alive at the same time. "It was a profound experience. "It gives you a different conception of himself, a different conception of himself in relation to others. His wife became his caregiver. For God's sake!"
• But of course, deepened its political identity. "I always knew in my head that I am not an island, but actually found that it is not only the kidneys - .. I could give you a long list of things that are not with me I could not go two days without someone coming to help [Richard] Titmuss called the gift relationship - .. throw the bread on the water, do not know who will pick you up, do not know if you need it later, just give because you This is the opposite of exchange value. It has no value.

"You get something. I always thought that the ego, the selfish individual of Adam Smith was wrong. The outside world enters our heads, there is a constant dialectic, it is impossible to eradicate. We have to forge kinship. I always knew that, but of course if you are sick, that comes later. Do you have an idea of ??how each dialysis session? Do I believe in a public health system? Sure. With bells on. "

It is the fact that the Labour Party to make a strong moral case for daring to inspire people, that takes as Hall of the main threat to the political landscape. He was impressed by the speech of the conference, Ed Miliband, for business "predators", but it has not such an interest in how the evils of business, large or small. He reserves his analysis of the weaknesses of traditional politicians, but not vindictive, but from an apparent belief that it could be much better

We talked briefly comments on David Lammy beating of children, this new articulation of multiculturalism, where diversity is large-scale anti-liberalism, so that the liberal voice to be celebrated is the difference really sappy frustration with the law. "I think it plays to the gallery He does not talk about multiculturalism, it is said: .." Getting back to good old truths, we can not go out because you can not leave because you can not leave. "It's the old school of authoritarianism. A person who knows how it feels Tottenham. Politicians always think they know what people feel. This is a fallacy, because there is no such thing as "people. "Is a device address to the convocation of the people you want. You build the village, we do not represent the people."
Since we are in the pockets of racial tension in recent weeks, what do you think of Diane Abbott, and "tactics as old as colonialism" fury? Laughing, he will not go anywhere near it, but check in ". Was incredibly bad time, and lack of care in the formulation of the argument" I suggest here that the current has the habit of appropriating the sensitivity of the minority, as a way to make them ridiculous. So you Home Counties Conservative MPs who say they are offended by Abbott "racism" when, of course, do not feel offended, they are trying to discredit the idea of ??crime against the cause of racism. "And you say you are an optimist!" He said. "Look, Gramsci, the Italian Marxist, believed in the pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the spirit. From watching what is happening now. If negative, say it is not favorable. Do not be fooled. Analysis of the situation you're in then you can be optimistic of the will, and say that I think things may be different. But they will not be the optimism of the will first. Because it's just a dream. "

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