Episode description

The journalist Matthew d’Ancona attacks the torpor and complacency which has come to dominate the political landscape. In Identity, Ignorance, Innovation he analyses what’s gone wrong in Britain from education and social care, to technological inequality. He tells Andrew Marr that far from demonising identity politics, the right needs to embrace a diversity of voices.

But identity politics has become a major battleground in the culture wars in Britain and the US. The writer Kenan Malik has been charting its rise, and focuses his attention on the growing interest in ‘white identity’, and the debate around the so-called ‘left behind’ in traditional working class areas.

The economist and Director of the LSE, Minouche Shafik argues that societal breakdown and increasing polarisation can only be healed with a new social contract fit for the 21st century. In What We Owe Each Other she draws on evidence from around the world to look at how we can re-evaluate the balance between the individual and society, between rights and responsibilities.

Producer: Katy Hickman