1. It is well said that the longer the saw of contention is drawn the hotter it grows; and the beginning of strife is as the letting forth of water. Since the fateful Brexit referendum of 2016, the troubled seas of UK’s identity politics are accordingly raging most severely each time they dash against the rock of reality. It therefore begs a simple question: How does one challenge identity politics in a liberal democratic country such as the United Kingdom of Great Britain?

2.  No one is better qualified to answer this question than Emeritus Professor John Charvet of the Department of Government at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

3. He was appropriately born in an Egyptian city of Cairo, in 1938; where his father worked for Shell oil company. John’s ancestry is also strikingly appropriate; for his heritage in its totality includes: English, French, Italian and Egyptian. However, he inherited his British nationality and citizenship from his father. His formative years were spent in Cairo, where he experienced the Second World War, but subsequently relocated to the United Kingdom in 1946, where he was privately educated. 

4. Graduating from Cambridge University with a degree in economics, John’s first job was as an Assistant Principal in the Home Civil Service at the Board of Trade. But it was not a success. He subsequently read for post graduate degree in Politics at Oxford University, from whence he took up a teaching position at the LSE, teaching the History of Political Philosophy. John took to teaching like a duck to water and remained at the LSE until his retirement at the age of 65. During his teaching career, John was a visiting Professor at The John Hopkins University in Baltimore, and a visiting Fellow at the Australian National University in Canberra. He has published seven books and numerous articles. John is now an Emeritus Professor at the LSE - dividing his time between France and Brighton. John now occupies himself with his love of all things gardening; he is also working on a new book entitled, Communitarian Ethics.

5.  In this Episode, we answer the question: How To Challenge Identity Politics In A Liberal Democracy?

6. Look up Episode 004 of Conversations with Stephen Kamugasa, and please subscribe to Conversations with Stephen Kamugasa podcast through your favourite podcast app to listen to the latest insights from our guest thought leaders.

Recommended Reading:

1. The Ethics of Identity (Princeton University Press, 2005), by K.A. Appiah

2. Pluralism (Duke University Press, 2005), by W. Connolly

3. Liberalism: The Basics (Routledge, 2019), by J.Charvet