I’m a lifelong Harry Potter fan. As a teenager, I even queued up outside WH Smiths at midnight to secure a copy of The Deathly Hallows, which I then read in one sitting. There wasn’t much of a queue and I was out late anyway, but it’s a cherished series for millions of us. Nonetheless, do I believe JK Rowling deserves to hold a ‘cool’ £820 million that increases by tens of millions every year through her stakes in Potter assets? No, I do not.
JK Rowling: divide and rule
JK Rowling, however, clearly does. She had a meltdown when it became clear that Jeremy Corbyn would be re-elected leader of Labour following the coup in 2016, even though he was only proposing a moderate rebalancing of wealth and resources from the richest and the reestablishing of public utilities in public hands. Policies that polling shows are simply common sense. She tweeted, upon news that Corbyn was increasing his mandate:
One day in the far distant future we’ll look back and we WONT LAUGH, LABOUR, BECAUSE THIS ISN’T BLOODY FUNNY.
Rowling would rather use the culture war to divide progressives and working class people. The author herself has the pen name Robert Galbraith for another series, suggesting she knows men and women both hold masculine and feminine qualities to differing degrees. She seems eager to dumb down the situation, when in fact the mind is more significant than identity politics.
Polanski and Green leadership
While the culture war rages on – fuelled by the likes of JK Rowling – deputy leader of the Greens Zack Polanski has announced a leadership bid. In doing so, he called for a 1% wealth tax on the richest 1%, rebalancing the economy by £75 billion per year. Rowling might not be too happy about that.
Polanski is arguing for ‘green populism’ to counter the rise of Nigel Farage, with Reform taking 31% of contested seats in the local elections to Labour’s 14%. He said:
People are done with the two old parties and we’re in this dangerous moment where Nigel Farage is absolutely ready to fill that vacuum. We should never turn into Nigel Farage. But there are things we can learn in terms of being really clear in speaking to people.
There’s an empty space in politics, where we’re not being as bold as we can be. Being sensible and professional are good qualities. But I don’t think they should be the central qualities.
It is this kind of approach to society we need – not the bigotry and division sewn by Reform, and the likes of JK Rowling.
Featured image via the Canary
