Anthony Barnett’s

Notes On Now

Sucked Into Parochialism

Since Brexit, England has been sucked into worse and worse parochialism. Real interest in the world seems to be falling away.

On 17-18 April, for example, there was a huge intercontinental gathering in Barcelona – a Global Progressive Mobilisation no less. Co-hosted by Spain’s Pedro Sánchez and Brazil’s Lula da Silva, it was addressed by Ireland’s President Catherine Connolly, along with Mexico’s Claudia Sheinbaum, South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa, and Colombia’s Gustavo Petro. US Democrats came to hear Lula and mingle with the Socialist International. Freeze-frame that.

I only read about it in Le Monde. Finally, two weeks later, there was a piece about it in the Guardian by Florian Ranft from Berlin, like a message in a bottle. “The centre-left is not dead,” he told us, thanks to participants from 40 countries building a “counter-Trumpian movement”.

Lammy or Not

There were a handful of Brits in attendance.