Owen Jones (British journalist)

Not to be confused with other writers named Owen Jones, such as Owen Jones (antiquary) and Owen Jones (architect).

Owen Jones
File:Owen Jones.jpeg Jones in May 2014
Born	(1984-08-08) August 8, 1984 Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, UK
Occupation	Columnist Author
Alma mater	University College, Oxford
Subject	Labour Party Socialism Left-wing politics Trade unionism
Notable works	Chavs: The Demonization of the Working Class The Establishment: And How They Get Away With It

Owen Jones (born 8 August 1984) is a British columnist, author, commentator and far-left political activist who supports the UK Labour Party. He is a columnist for The Guardian and, since 2015, for the New Statesman, and a former contributor to The Independent. He has also set up a YouTube channel whereby he uploads videos and interviews, some of which appear on the official website of the Guardian.

In 2018 Jones booked a large hall in Leeds UK for a speaking event, a one-man show where he was billed as talking about "Building a New Britain". The event had to be cancelled as hardly any tickets were sold.

Early life

Jones was born in Sheffield and grew up in Stockport, Greater Manchester, and briefly in Falkirk, Scotland. His father was a local authority worker and trade-union shop steward, and his mother is an IT lecturer. He describes himself as a "4th generation socialist"; his grandfather was involved with the Communist Party and his parents met as members of the Trotskyist Militant tendency.

He attended Bramhall High School and Ridge Danyers Sixth Form College before studying history at University College, Oxford, graduating with a BA in 2005 and a Master of Studies (MSt) in US history in 2007. Before entering journalism, Jones worked as a trade-union lobbyist and was a parliamentary researcher for left-wing Labour politician John McDonnell, a backbencher who became Shadow Chancellor in 2015.

Writings and public career

Jones is a weekly columnist for The Guardian after switching from The Independent in March 2014. His work has appeared in the New Statesman, the Sunday Mirror, Le Monde diplomatique and several smaller publications. He has made television appearances as a political commentator, including several BBC News shows, Sky News, Channel 4 News, ITV's Daybreak and BBC One's Question Time programme. Jones writes from a left-wing perspective; Andrew Neather has cited Jones' Chavs: The Demonization of the Working Class as a contributory factor in a resurgence of left-wing-themed ideas. He is a member of the National Advisory Panel for the Centre for Labour and Social Studies, a left-wing think tank. Jones is a republican and is a supporter of Unite Against Fascism, speaking at conferences organised by UAF.

File:Owen Jones 2013.jpg

Jones speaking in October 2013

In 2011, Jones' first book, Chavs: The Demonization of the Working Class discusses stereotypes of sections of the British working class and the use of the pejorative term "chav". The book received attention in domestic and international media and was selected by critic Dwight Garner of The New York Times as one of his top 10 non-fiction books of 2011 in the paper's Holiday Gift Guide and was long-listed for the Guardian First Book Award. The Independent on Sunday named Jones as one of its top 50 Britons of 2011, for the manner in which his book raised the profile of class-based issues. Jones' second book, The Establishment: And How They Get Away With It was published in September 2014.

Jones' left-wing views have garnered widespread attention in the media, with some commentators likening Jones' rhetoric to that of the fictitious Dave Spart in Private Eye, a caricature of the British "hard left". Jones has received attention as a significant commentator of the left, with The Daily Telegraph placing him 7th in its 2013 list of Britain's most influential left-wingers. In November 2012, Jones was awarded Journalist of the Year at the Stonewall Awards, along with The Times journalist Hugo Rifkind. In February 2013 when Jones was awarded the Young Writer of the Year prize at the Political Book Award, he donated half the prize money to support the campaign of Lisa Forbes, a Labour parliamentary candidate and the other half to Disabled People Against Cuts. In an interview with The Student Journals, Jones commented that several people have accused him of using politics only as a tool to raise his own profile and that he risks being seen as a "lefty rent-a-gob".

Jones spoke at a press conference to launch the People's Assembly Against Austerity on 26 March 2013 and regional public meetings in the lead-up to a national meeting at Central Hall Westminster on 22 June 2013. In November 2013 he delivered the Royal Television Society Huw Wheldon Memorial Lecture, Totally Shameless: How TV Portrays the Working Class.

In 2016, Jones has been described as "possibly the greatest defender of Pablo Iglesias's party" Podemos by Bernardo Gutiérrez González (writing in openDemocracy), saying that one of the greatest traits of Podemos was to give up the traditional symbolisms of the left and talk with others in more accessible language. In 2015, Jones signed a manifesto supporting Barcelona en Comú.

With regards to the European Union, Jones has called for British withdrawal from the European Union in the past, Jones currently supports "Another Europe is Possible" and "the radical 'in' campaign" for the 2016 referendum on EU membership. Owen Jones' parents voted against membership in the 1975 EEC referendum.

Jones is a supporter of a United Ireland, speaking at a Sinn Féin summer school in Ireland in July 2015; this drew criticism from Douglas Murray in The Spectator, who accused Owen Jones of "hanging out with the most murderous political party in Europe". However, when discussing comments made by Shadow Chancellor (John McDonnell) regarding the IRA, Jones deplored "the violence of the IRA", describing the organisation as "despicable", saying that there was "no defence for any support of the IRA". Jones does not support Scottish independence or the SNP.

2011 England riots

Shortly after the publication of his first book, Jones claims that he was "was one of the few commentators during that turbulent week [referencing the 2011 England riots] asked to challenge the dominant narrative that this was mindless criminality, end of story", and criticised how the aftermath was used to demonise working-class youth unjustly. Jones said that:

I think these riots are being manipulated by the government. People are understandably angered and scared, but what this government is doing – is using this to justify attacks on people who are on benefits. We've seen attacks on single parents, this idea of fatherless families which are made responsible. We've recently seen attacks on civil liberty and even these attacks on social media to be closed down ...
Justice needs to be proportionate to the crime. If you take away all forms of income and all forms of housing from people, than what reason [do they have] not to be involved in criminality? That becomes their only means of survival. ...
What happened was completely inexcusable, but when you have enough people who feel they have no future, only a small proportion of those is needed to respond in this outrageous way to make chaos in the streets of London.

Jones became "the centre of one of the ugliest episodes of the backlash" as he put it, when he was involved in an interview with David Starkey; during the interview, Starkey referenced the infamous Rivers of Blood speech by Enoch Powell, and blamed a type of "black culture" for the riots, saying that "the whites have become black". Starkey's comments were widely condemned, including by Jones himself, claiming that "multiculturalism and ethnic groups have nothing to do with what happened".

Criticism of American exceptionalism

On 23 August 2012, Jones criticised American exceptionalism and US military power in an article for The Independent, concluding by saying: "With the last remaining superpower at its weakest since World War II, there is an unmissable opening to argue for a more equal and just world order, restricting the ability of Great Powers to throw their weight around." This led to him being criticised on Fox News Channel's The Five, being called a "creep", "9th grader" and a "braying jackal". He has partially accepted the latter moniker himself, describing it as "hilarious" and saying that: "I'll take "braying jackal", but I'm livid about "liberal" writer. Maybe I'll sue".

LGBT rights

Jones is homosexual and was described by Gay Times magazine as a "prominent voice for the LGBT community". "The fact that I can be openly gay is a product of all the struggles that’ve gone before me", he said in early 2016. Jones explained to transgender identifying man activist Paris Lees in a 2015 edition of Attitude that, despite not being overly aware of transgender issues in the past, he has recently felt a great responsibility to champion transgender rights. Lees, who has a record of conviction for violent crime, also described Jones and Peter Tatchell as knowing "more about systemic inequality in modern Britain and how to change it" than anybody else, deflecting himself from criticism that he should not have chosen to interview Jones or Tatchell as they are what he calls cisgender (non-transgender).

Jones has written about sexism and homophobia in his Guardian columns, from both heterosexuals and from within the gay male community, saying in 2014 that: "A society free of sexism and homophobia won't just emancipate women and gay men: it will free straight men, too." Jones has also spoken out against the Democratic Unionist Party in Northern Ireland for its remarks against gay people; however, Jones claims to reject identity politics in Chavs: The Demonization of the Working Class, as he believes it has often been "an agenda that has happily co-existed with the sidelining of the working class in politics, allowing New Labour to protect its radical flank while pressing ahead with Thatcherite policies".

Indifference to Problem of Homosexual Rape

In 2020 Jones who wrote an article in the Guardian newspaper entitled "Male rape survivors suffer in silence. We need to help them talk." This was in response to a report about the prevalence of homosexual rape of men and boys which brought attention to boys as young as ten years old being raped by homosexual males and abused over a long period of time, sometimes leaving the victims with suicidal feelings. He wrote "Male rape and sexual abuse is a largely hidden crisis. We know most female survivors never report their experiences; among men, it’s even higher. For those men who do come forward about sexual abuse, the evidence suggests that it takes them three decades on average to do so." Absurdly, Jones wrote that the problem needing to be addressed was "the lack of support for male survivors, and how toxic gender norms leave them traumatised and struggling." He praises a survivor support group but nowhere in his article does the LGBT activist suggest that homosexual males should stop raping. He condones their behaviour and apparently believes that they have a right to do this. The idea that homosexuals are ever wrong or blame or should change is inconceivable to him. The article effectively condones violent crime and unintentionally provides evidence for the link between homosexuality and pedophilia.

Claims to be a Feminist Ally

Jones has claimed to be a feminist ally . However his claims are rejected by feminists as he refuses to accept the biological definition of "woman" and gives the demands of male transgenders priority over women.

Islamophobia, antisemitism and the Middle East

Jones has written several articles defending Muslims and attacking the rise of Islamophobia, which he has called a "poison". He is critic of the government's Prevent strategy to combat Islamic extremism in schools and has cited Western foreign policy as one of "a number of factors" responsible for increasing radicalisation within the Muslim population.

In 2013, Jones wrote an article commenting on the attitudes of the biologist and atheist campaigner Richard Dawkins displayed in Dawkins' criticism of Islam and Muslims. Several defenders of Dawkins claimed that Jones wanted to protect Islam from criticism; a charge that he denied. In response to the criticism levelled at Dawkins by Jones and other journalists, The Spectator's Nick Cohen wrote of them:

They stay silent because they are frightened of breaking with the crowd, of the faint threat of Islamist retaliation, and of absurd accusations of racism. Journalists want the easy life. They want targets who cannot hurt them...
One day there will be a reckoning. One day, thousands who have suffered genital mutilation, religious threats and forced marriages will turn to the intellectual and political establishments of our day and ask why they did not protect them. The pathetic and discreditable reply can only be: 'We were too busy fighting Richard Dawkins to offer you any support at all.'

Jones is a supporter of the rights of the Palestinian people in the Israel–Palestine conflict, arguing against the occupation of Gaza by Israel, and has written that he has been threatened by other journalists calling him an antisemite. However, Jones has argued against the "demonisation" of Israel by some pro-Palestine activists on the left, arguing that a greater understanding of the rationale behind Zionism is needed. He deems antisemitism "a menace" that "infects" the left as well as the far-right, and has said that antisemites should be expelled from Labour. Jones condemns left-wingers who associate Judaism with Zionism, pointing out that some prominent anti-Zionists are Jewish and some prominent Zionists are Christian.

Hugo Chávez

In several articles, Jones has praised Hugo Chávez, the former President of Venezuela. In a piece published by The Independent in October 2012, he wrote, "Despite formidable obstacles, [Chávez] has proved it is possible to lead a popular, progressive government that breaks with neo-liberal dogma".

Several months later, in January 2013, The Spectator's David Pryce-Jones wrote a piece criticising those he viewed as fellow travellers of Chávez; a man that he described as being within the "welterweight class" of dictators. Including Jones amongst the list of "fellow travellers", Pryce-Jones cited his article in The Independent as a "masterpiece of false equivalence and double standards".

Later that year, in an article following Chávez's death, Jones praised him again and rejected claims that the former President was a dictator, asserting that Chávez was "a democratically elected champion of the poor". He added, "His policies lifted millions out of abject poverty and misery. He represented a break from years of corrupt regimes with often dire human rights records. His achievements were won in the face of an attempted military coup, an aggressively hostile media, and bitter foreign critics."

In 2014, Jones wrote a third article in defence of Chávez and praised his contributions to Venezuela. In the piece for The Independent, he commented on critics of the Venezuelan government, stating, "Those who relish using Venezuela's troubles for political point-scoring have no interest in the truth".

Donald Trump

Jones has been described as "a staunch critic of the Republican frontrunner" Donald Trump during Trump's campaign for presidency of the United States in 2016. Following controversy over Trump's proposals for a compulsory halt on Muslim immigration to the US, Jones said in his column for The Guardian that "Trump demonstrates that Islamic State is winning", adding that: "One of the [IS's] strategic aims is to divide western societies from western Muslim communities: to fuel a sense among Muslims that they are rejected, unwanted, even despised, driving them into the camp of global jihad. ... Trump is a menace, an inciter of bigotry and a recruiting sergeant for terrorism – and this must be taken seriously." His comments received some support on Twitter and other social media, and he "was commended for being eloquent, important and highlighting the 'real dangers' of a Trump presidency."

External links

• Articles in The Independent
• Articles in The Guardian
• Articles in the New Statesman
• Youtube channel