Tuesday, 4 February 2020

My Establishment credentials

I added the following note to my piece of last week about why and how I left the Establishment - which cleared the way to becoming a Christian:

Maybe the peak of my Establishment acceptance came when - in 2000 - I was a Visiting Distinguished Millennial Fellow at Kings College London.

I was surely the least in status of these Fellows, probably a substitute for someone who dropped out; nonetheless the other Fellows included political scientist Kenneth Minogue of the LSE, Melanie Phillips the journalist (a panellist, not Fellow), Julia Neuberger (another panellist: then the most famous UK female Jew - reformed liberal 'Rabbi'), Robert Winston (University of London, doctor) and Colin Blakemore (a panellist - Oxford, scientist) who both fronted major BBC TV series, Kay Redfield Jameson of Harvard (the global star of bipolar disorder), Rowan Williams (later Archbishop of Canterbury).

I gave a lecture to some hundreds of people at Southwark Cathedral, London; an extract of which was reprinted in The Independent newspaper.

[The Independent is an ultra-Leftist national title. You can see from the linked transcript how much of a Libertarian I was at that time - which indirectly shows that Libertarians are actually of-the-Left - if there had been any doubt.]

Oh! - I nearly forgot to mention the most significant 'evidence' that I was part of The Establishment (albeit on the fringe): my original debating opponent in Southwark Cathedral, was, until a late-ish stage of planning, Jimmy Carter. Yes, him. I really was scheduled to speak as one of only two lecturers with the ex-President of the USA. In the event, he cancelled; but still...