Ash Sarkar - Minority Rule

Have a read through of Ash Sarkar's CV and I dare say it would be headed up with contributing editor for Novara Media, but she is probably best known for her appearances on the panels of TV shows focusing on political commentary. Sarkar's repost to a singularly obtuse Piers Morgan that "I'm literally a communist, you idiot" famously elevated her status across the political spectrum - we all have time for someone who successfully crosses swords with Mr Morgan.

Since then, she's been the go-to person for an articulate, informed perspective from the Left, someone that has little patience for the far right but is equally despairing of the compromises she sees the centre left have made to gain power. On the day of her talk at Epic Studios, she appeared on TV discussing changes in the legal framework around sentencing, and it was telling that she alone questioned the premise of the debate. News reporting itself cannot be trusted, in a nutshell, something she expanded on in an evening that explored the thinking in her book Minority Power.

It is ironic, but unsurprising, that the content of her book has been so distorted by the manipulative media that she so roundly criticised. Contrary to reports, she has not done an about turn - "I'm not doing a Claire Fox!" –but merely soberly reflecting on past decisions with the benefit of hindsight. The Left's focus on identity politics, she concluded, was not exactly wrong but it was a distraction from the issues that mattered to potential voters. One need look no further, she pointed out, than the Democrats fall from grace to see the same mistake repeated. The Right's appropriation of the culture war, morphing so called chavs into downtrodden working class, served to further illustrate the divisive nature of a debate that so often relies on empty rhetoric. As council house sales, the loss of heavy industry and their associated unions further atomised the working classes, she asked whether it is any wonder that popularism is on the rise?

Given she's often tasked with countering empty sophistry from journeyman politicians or outright nonsense from swivel-eyed loons, perhaps its unsurprising that Sarkar can come across as earnest and irascible, but in person, she is far from the combative commentator we see on screen. From the outset, she was hugely personable, sweetly self-deprecating, and occasionally downright silly. None of which deflected from her abiding thesis - she was just much more jolly company than might have been expected. "Don't just ask me serious questions," she pleaded. "Ask me what my karaoke song is."

She was joined in stage by Jolyon Rubinstein,  a writer, actor and broadcaster in his own right, and as a consequence their exchanges sat a little uneasily on a line somewhere between interview and chat. I did weary of Rubinstein repeatedly reminding us of what they had already discussed back stage, and there were times he seemed to forget it was Sarkar's views we had come to hear. In fairness, this was largely due to his genuine engagement with her opinions - he'd obviously done his homework and read her book - but when their contrasting perspectives on the Corbyn era were exposed, it was telling how she struggled to interject while he ranted.

When she was given the space talk, we learned about her introduction to Marxism - she thought it a good way to attract boys, only subsequently realising it made sense to her – before discussing the Black Panthers, Young Patriots, Turkish restaurants, global inequality, Star Trek, rural racism and feral cats, in a pleasing jumble of the slight and the serious. Intriguingly, rather than dismiss the populist approach, she empathised with it, suggesting the Left needs to be pragmatic and embrace it. "We need a mad bastard," she insisted "A shark that swims towards blood, not away, and preferably a white bloke with a regional accent". There was more, much more, said during evening, but the book is the place to explore her thinking further. I'd be fibbing if I claimed to agree with everything she said, but that's only because she said a lot, and she did so with a consistent sincerity and thoughtfulness.

The evening was topped off with a Q&A that leaned towards the whimsical, a welcome sorbet after the occasionally grim prognosis that preceded it. In the same spirit I had in mind to conclude this review with the big reveal that her aforementioned Karaoke choice is Rich Girls by Hall and Oates. Sadly, I'll end it instead as the night did - abruptly and unexpectedly - with the announcement that the book signing was cancelled due to a security alert. "I don't want to be stabbed" she said, not unreasonably, and with a smile. It was shocking news, as was the nonchalance with which Sarkar handled it. What have we come to, when someone is threatened with violence for speaking their mind so often that they make light of it?