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Watch: How Dominic Cummings' contempt made us feel

Director Mark Cousins has turned Fintan O'Toole's words into a powerful statement of public anger: 'This Violation' (7.5 mins).

Mark Cousins Fintan O’Toole
1 July 2020

This is director Mark Cousins' film of an article by Fintan O'Toole: 'Cummings’ contempt for lockdown rules makes the public feel like fools'.

It was written after Dominic Cummings – controversial senior adviser to UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson – was accused of breaking coronavirus lockdown rules. For days the media was full of angry comments from people who had, for the good of society at large, accepted the restrictions that Cummings appeared to have flouted.

The text is read by Fintan O'Toole, Gill Moreton, Leni Rademacher, Asheq Akhtar, Mat Whitecross, Catherine Mack, E.M. Powell, Roslyn Law, Lubnar Kerr, Majinder Virk, Jon Savage, Asmamaw Sisay, Clara Glynn, Sonali Bhattacharya, Irvine Welsh, Yung Kha, Grainne O'Mahoney, Ian Adair, Sam Haillay, John Archer, Dave Anderson, Alastair Phillips, Karine Polwart, Jenny Leask, Darrell Butler, Barnaby Taylor, David Litchfield, Sagar Rathod, Jean Sadler, Victoria Blair, Lynne Jones, Gair Dunlop, Colin Richards, Huw Williams, Mark Cousins, Dhivya Jane Chetty and Jane Heslop.

Thanks to Fintan O'Toole and The Guardian for their permission to publish this.

Can there be a green populist project on the Left?

Many on the Left want to return to a politics based on class, not populism. They point to Left populist parties not reaching their goals. But Chantal Mouffe argues that as the COVID-19 pandemic has put the need for protection from harm at the top of the agenda, a Left populist strategy is now more relevant than ever.

Is this an opportunity for a realignment around a green democratic transformation?

Join us for a free live discussion on Thursday 22 October, 5pm UK time/12pm EDT.

Hear from:

Paolo Gerbaudo Sociologist and political theorist, director of the Centre for Digital Culture at King’s College London and author of ‘The Mask and the Flag: Populism and Global Protest’ and ‘The Digital Party: Political Organisation and Online Democracy’, and of the forthcoming ‘The Great Recoil: Politics After Populism and Pandemic’.

Chantal Mouffe Emeritus Professor of Political Theory at the University of Westminster in London. Her most recent books are ‘Agonistics. Thinking the World Politically’, ‘Podemos. In the Name of the People’ and ‘For a Left Populism’.

Spyros A. Sofos Researcher and research coordinator at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Lund University and author of ‘Nation and Identity in Contemporary Europe’, ‘Tormented by History’ and ‘Islam in Europe: Public Spaces and Civic Networks'.

Chair: Walid el Houri Researcher, journalist and filmmaker based between Berlin and Beirut. He is partnerships editor at openDemocracy and lead editor of its North Africa, West Asia project.

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