Paul Mason (born 23 January 1960) is a British journalist. He writes a weekly column at The New European[1] and monthly columns for Social Europe[2] and Frankfurter Rundschau.[3] He was Business Editor of the BBC Two television programme Newsnight from 2001, and Culture and Digital Editor of Channel 4 News from 2013,[4] becoming the programme's Economics Editor in 2014.[5] He left Channel 4 in 2016.[6]
Mason was born in Leigh, Lancashire.[8] His father, John Mason (1927–86), was a lorry driver for Ward & Goldstone Ltd. His mother, Julia (née Lewis, born 1935), was headmistress of St Margaret Mary's Primary School, Hindley Green. One grandparent was a miner and another was a Lithuanian-Jewish violinist.[10]
Mason in Athens during Greek elections, reporting for Channel 4 News, 20 September 2015
Mason has lived in London since 1988, becoming a freelance journalist around 1991. From 1995 to 2001 he worked for Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier, on titles including Contract Journal, Community Care[12] and Computer Weekly, of which he was deputy editor.[8]
In August 2001, Mason joined the BBC Two television programme Newsnight as Business Editor. His first live appearance on Newsnight was on the day of the September 11 attacks in 2001.[13]
Mason wrote a blog for Newsnight called "Idle Scrawl".[8]
In June 2007, Mason presented Spinning Yarns, a four-part series on the history of the cotton industry for BBC Radio Four. Mason appeared in a five-part BBC series Credit Crash Britain, first broadcast on BBC Two on 30 October 2008.[citation needed]
Mason attended the Wigan Casino in his youth as a follower of Northern Soul and hosted a documentary about the Northern Soul scene for the BBC's The Culture Show in September 2013.[14]
In August 2013, it was announced that Mason would join Channel 4 News as its culture and digital editor.[4] In May 2014, it was announced that he would become the programme's Economics Editor at the beginning of the following month, replacing Faisal Islam.[5]
Mason announced in February 2016 that he was leaving his position at Channel 4 News in favour of freelancing so he could engage more fully in debates without the constraint of impartiality observed by broadcasters in the UK.[15]
His four-part documentary series #ThisIsACoup covered the 2015 Greek crisis from inside and outside the corridors of power. His documentary series K is for Karl commemorated the ideas of Karl Marx on the 200th anniversary of Marx’s birth. His series, R is for Rosa, was commissioned by the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation to mark the centenary of the Polish-German revolutionary.[citation needed]
Play
Mason answering questions on the set of Divine Chaos of Starry Things in London in May 2017
In 2017, Mason wrote Divine Chaos of Starry Things, a two act play looking at the life of Louise Michel and other exiles from the 1871 Paris Commune in exile in New Caledonia.[16]The Guardian described it as "a frustrating, clunky but always intelligent drama focusing on the women in New Caledonia, and particularly the revolutionary Louise Michel. While her comrades take refuge in drink and hopes of appeal against their sentences, Michel keeps the red flag flying. She recognises that the oppression of the Kanaks and of the Parisian working class are one and the same".[17]
Awards
Mason won the Wincott Prize for Business Journalism in 2003,[18] the Workworld Broadcaster of the Year in 2004,[8] and the Diageo African Business Reporting Award in 2007.[8] In 2020 he was awarded the Erich Fromm Prize.[19]
Mason is a former member of the Workers' Power group. He responded to an interviewer from the Evening Standard in 2011: "It's on Wikipedia that I was, so it must be true. It's fair to say I was a Leftie activist. What my politics are now are very complicated."[22][23][24] In an interview with The Independent in 2015, he described himself as having been a "supporter" of the group.[25]
In a speech in 2015 marking the publication of Naomi Klein's book This Changes Everything, he declared that "capitalism is dying".[26] Mason has called for an alliance of "bond traders from Canary Wharf, arm in arm with placard-carrying Trots" against right-wing populist groups such as UKIP.[27] Mason later described UKIP voters in unfavourable terms, stating, "They are toe-rags, basically. They are the bloke who nicks your bike".[28]
In 2016, Mason distanced himself from his former involvement in far-left Trotskyist politics, by saying that he no longer holds such views and identifies with a "radical social democracy". Responding to comments by the then-Chancellor of the ExchequerGeorge Osborne, he said:
As to Mr Osborne's claim that I am "revolutionary Marxist" it is completely inaccurate. I am radical social democrat who favours the creation of a peer-to-peer sector (co-ops, open source etc) alongside the market and the state, as part of a long transition to a post-capitalist economy. There's a comprehensive critique of Bolshevism in my latest book, Postcapitalism: A Guide to Our Future.[29]
In June 2016, Mason supported Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn after mass resignations from his cabinet and a leadership challenge. He wrote in The Guardian: "But one thing I do know: Corbyn is incapable of lying to the British people; he is inured to elite politics; he didn't spend his entire life in a Machiavellian project to gain power and an invitation to Oleg Deripaska's yacht. That's why I voted for him and will do so again if you trigger a leadership vote."[32]
In September 2016, he told the website The Canary: "Instead of attacking Momentum, any social democrat with an ounce of knowledge of Labour history should welcome it, even if they disagree with its politics... It is a genuine movement of the Labour left; it stands in the long tradition of radical social democracy, going back to Robert Blatchford's Clarion movement before 1914, or the ILP in the 1920s."[33]
In the New Statesman magazine in June 2018, Mason argued the case for state suppression of "fascists", saying that he favoured a policy of using "the full panoply of security measures to deter and monitor" those he described as "racists" and added: "For clarity, unlike many on the left, that means I am in favour of state suppression of fascist groups." He finished his article by saying that "The progressive half of Britain needs a narrative to overcome this threat: a narrative based on shared, historic values of democracy and tolerance", and also "[to] stop pandering to right-wing nationalism and xenophobia and start fighting it."[34]
Mason long supported the need for radical action on climate change, at least from 2014.[35] In 2019, Mason supported the US Green New Deal legislation proposal.[36] Later that year Martin Wolf characterised Mason's views in the Financial Times as justifying a planned economy, quoting Mason saying in support of the UK A Green New Deal report "Labour wants to combat climate change through three mechanisms: state spending, state lending and the state direction of private finance."[37]
In May 2022, in a The Spectator podcast, Mason said he was a supporter of Keir Starmer as Labour leader in the aftermath of the Beergate COVID-19 regulations breach allegations.[38]
The same month, Mason was longlisted to be the Labour candidate for the safe seat of Stretford and Urmston in Greater Manchester, succeeding the retiring MP Kate Green. However, he did not make the shortlist, which was announced in June 2022.[39][40] In October 2022, Mason tried for selection for Sheffield Central to replace Labour MP Paul Bloomfield, but here too failed to make the shortlist.[41][42] In March 2023, Mason stated his intention to run for selection for the new seat of Mid & South Pembrokeshire, but failed to make the longlist.[43][44]
In July 2023, it was reported that Mason was being considered as a candidate by the Labour Party to run in the constituency of Islington North at the next General Election. This may require him to run against the former Labour leader and serving Islington North MP, Jeremy Corbyn, who has been suspended from the Labour Party, should Corbyn run as an independent candidate. Mason confirmed his intention to apply for selection as the Labour candidate for the constituency in May 2024. Despite having previously supported him as Labour leader, Mason has been critical of Corbyn's record on antisemitism, defence and Brexit.[45]
Jeremy Bernard Corbyn is a British politician who served as Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party from 2015 to 2020. On the political left of the Labour Party, Corbyn describes himself as a socialist. He has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Islington North since 1983. As of October 2020, Corbyn sits in the House of Commons as an independent, following the suspension of the whip.
Robert Michael Kilroy-Silk is an English former politician and broadcaster. After a decade as a university lecturer, he served as a Labour Party Member of Parliament (MP) from 1974 to 1986. He left the House of Commons in 1986 in order to present a new BBC Television daytime talk show, Kilroy, which ran until 2004. He returned to politics, serving as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from 2004 to 2009. He had a profound role in the mainstreaming of Eurosceptic politics in the UK and has been dubbed 'The Godfather of Brexit'.
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↑ Can Keir escape?. The Spectator. 12 May 2022. Event occurs at 11m48s. Retrieved 9 June 2022. As a supporter of Keir, I just don't think he is going anywhere.
↑ Tweetin' 'bout a revolution: Paul Mason talks about Why It's Kicking Off Everywhere: the new global revolutions and horizontalist movements. Red Pepper, February 2012.
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