But the more reflective on the Labour right have to accept the lack of vision. I don’t start rehearsals for a while. I think we will agree on this. OJ: Fine. His literary agent warned him against making his writing too “clinical”. I wrote a book which did better than expected. If you had to explain your purpose in life, what would you say? OJ: Yeah, we could both get attacked for that. OJ: No.

But Jones put one question to Martin which accidentally managed to humiliate the entire British media as well. AC: I'm trying to make it snappy for readers.

As we settle down for a pint in the King’s College bar, I ask him whether his plan was always to follow this route: from journalist, to writer, to left-wing pin-up. We will not share your information with third parties. AC: My point is you are one of the voices in that space, and when I was your age there came a point where I thought you can have a bit of influence as a journalist, but not that much, and I think you want to do a lot. Owen Peter Jones (born 8 August 1984) is a left-wing British newspaper columnist, political commentator, journalist, and Labour Party activist. OJ: I am aware it is not going well in many parts of the world. Where can people follow your work on Twitter/Facebook/YouTube etc? Spain, Greece, you saw a collapse in support. OJ: But I am talking about the radical left.

Sweeney in Sweeney Todd would be nice but I’m hoping there’s a perfect role for me that has yet to be written…. I don't think it went far enough, but you had the minimum wage, devolution, windfall tax... 'I didn't think any [Labour leadership contenders] were capable [of winning a general election and being prime minister]'.

“Someone like that, even getting an A and two Bs, they’ve done a lot, lot better than someone at Eton who’s had everything stacked in their favour since day one, and went up with three As.

AC: The leader of the Labour Party has a very big platform. Click here for instructions to do so in your browser, he told the assembled billionaires at Davos to stop avoiding paying tax. “People will kill themselves over that, well they already are. Registered in England. AC: To work out why we got here and how we get out of it. OJ: We had a crash.

So Thatcher's top? Both were pretty special due to the rich history and legacy of each building. He pulls a face when a fellow drinker says he has become a “role model” for young lefties, “you’re scraping the barrel there” he laughs. OJ: Iraq was not just some mistake to shake off. My website www.johnowenjones.com on twitter @johnowenjones and Instagram @johnowenjonesofficial. AC: I'm trying to find out what you think. Friends and family grieve after a list of hospitalised victims was released, implying the death of those who weren't on the list and hadn't been heard from, outside a Hampton Inn & Suites hotel near the Orlando Regional Medical Center, People mourning for victims of the mass shooting near the Pulse gay nightclub in Orlando, Mina Justice speaks to a reporter discussing texting with her son Eddie who was in a bathroom at Club Pulse in Orlando. The left, a global movement to eradicate oppression and build societies in the interests of the majority rather than a tiny elite. AC: Have the beliefs changed? We did a lot of radical things. The problem was the left stood not to win the Labour leadership but put policies on the agenda, stop the others moving to the right, and it was like charging at a door made of titanium and realising it was made of paper. Turned it down several times. Mr Jones fired back that Mr Longhurst "could not understand" as he was not gay. “You’ve got to start where people are and where the world is ... so say welfare at the moment, obviously I want to take on welfare cuts which are going to inflict misery on hundreds of thousands of people; it’s going to destroy lives.”. He's been on TV many times, why's he never been asked? His new book, Humankind: A Hopeful History, challenges the idea that we are by nature selfish and governed by self-interest. OJ: I wrote that he was the worst since Neville Chamberlain and historians defended Chamberlain because he re-armed Britain [before 1939]. I know you don't want to talk about yourself... AC: You are quite Marmite, aren't you? AC: Partly because so many Labour supporters do not stand up for what Labour governments do. Otherwise you can't have a classless society. AC: All I am asking is did you ever think he could win a general election and be prime minister?

The government have been turning “the working poor against the unemployed ... private sector workers against public sector workers”, he says with urgency. Jones is clearly more comfortable talking about these “everyday experiences, and bread and butter issues”, than discussing varieties of socialism.

We have “a world in which parents have to choose between heating their homes and feeding their children” and "the real deficit deniers are holed up in number 10 and 11", refusing to acknowledge the growth of debt under their government, he argues. You know I never wanted to be a writer, so that was just a means to an end.”. OJ: I know. https://t.co/FE1gZMM3DG. It may be a cheap jibe, but why don't you go the whole hog? Also, his first impressions were broadly positive - he won. OJ: No, it's not. September 2020. Is the Guardian not all a bit private-school Oxbridge middle-class? There are literally too many to mention but one particular memory that always amuses me is when I was playing The Phantom at a special memorial concert at Her Majesty’s theatre celebrating the life of Phantom’s original set designer the late, great Maria Bjornson. Therefore we are asking our readers, if they wish, to make a donation from as little as £1, to help with our running costs at least until this global crisis ends and things begin to return to normal. You had the rise of the new right, the defeats of trade unions, globalisation which seems to hem in states and the levers they can pull, that's bad for social democratic parties. It's a huge failure of our media. I always had passionate beliefs and a commitment to certain causes and a belief it is collective action that changes the world, the role of the individual is very limited, and [that] if I had a platform I would use it for those causes. The existing Open Comments threads will continue to exist for those who do not subscribe to Independent Premium. It is bollocks, but people hear that and go, yeah. AC: The point is you are a journalist and a player as well as a spectator. Our journalists will try to respond by joining the threads when they can to create a true meeting of independent Premium. He will be talking to Guardian journalist Owen Jones, and you'll get the chance to put some of your questions to him too.. Last year, Bregman became an overnight social media sensation when he told the assembled billionaires at Davos to stop avoiding paying tax. AC: I think it is a factor. AC: Oh, stop trying to curry favour by being nice about my missus. Are you sure you want to delete this comment? I had to juggle things.