Jack Shenker
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Journalist and other things, based in London and Cairo
Articles by Jack Shenker
Britain’s Army of Landlords Is Generation Rent’s Biggest Problem
Madrid, Sept. 23, 2026: The eviction of Maricarmen Abascal, 87, from the flat she had lived in for more than 70 years, became a symbol of Spain’s real estate crisis. Photo by Luciano Lima/Getty Images When the 87-year-old Spanish pensioner Maricarmen Abascal was dragged from her home on a stretcher last month, at the behest of a property investment company that wanted to increase her rent by more than 500%, Nadz Vogel had two thoughts running through their head. The first was a sense of déjà vu.
Politik : Er agiert wie ein Bond-Bösewicht: Wie viel Einfluss hat Scheich Tahnoon wirklich?
Von The Guardian Wie ein Bond-Bösewicht: Scheich Tahnoon In der Nacht des 12. November 1993 betrat ein schlanker, junger Brasilianer namens Royce Gracie in Denver, Colorado, einen achteckigen Käfig und sah sich plötzlich den Augen eines Riesen gegenüber. Gerard Gordeau, ein niederländischer Kickboxer, war fünf Zoll größer, wog fast drei Stone mehr als er und verfügte über ein Jahrzehnt mehr Kampferfahrung.
Fixer, financier, spymaster: how the UAE’s Sheikh Tahnoon is setting his sights on AI dominance
default On the night of 12 November 1993, a slim, young Brazilian named Royce Gracie stepped into an octagonal cage in Denver, Colorado, and found himself staring up into the eyes of a giant. Gerard Gordeau, a Dutch kickboxer, stood five inches taller, weighed almost three stone more than him, and had an extra decade of fighting experience under his belt.
Birra e champagne per i populisti britannici
La cena è cominciata con un prete che benediceva la tavola ed è finita con Nigel Farage che guidava i presenti in un chiassoso coro sulle note di Ymca, l’inno gay immancabile nei raduni di Donald Trump. Durante la serata sono state stappate a ripetizione jéroboam di borgogna e magnum di claret (bottiglie da tre e 1,5 litri). “Si respirava ottimismo”, ricorda Lady Victoria Hervey, esponente dell’alta società presente all’evento. “L’atmosfera era molto allegra”.
Renters v. Rentiers
How does anyone make sense of Britain’s rental crisis? Let’s start with Ruby’s story – and that of her landlord, which is inseparable from her own though they’ve never met. Ruby was born in Kent, where her mother had been sent to live as a teenager while under the care of a local authority in London, ‘a forgotten girl’, as Ruby called her, ‘shifted out to wherever was cheap’.
‘We need to assert our power - or we’ll get trampled on’: the cleaner sacked for eating a tuna sandwich
Gabriela Rodriguez: ‘People did it all the time.’ Photograph: Christian Sinibaldi/The Guardian At the moment when Gabriela Rodriguez discovered she had been sacked for eating a tuna sandwich, she was carrying the bins out. Removing rubbish bags from the office in Finsbury Circus – an elegant, towering ring of neoclassical buildings that sits at the heart of London’s financial district – formed a key part of Rodriguez’s daily duties.
‘We need to assert our power
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British eco-activists are asking: is disruption the best way to avert climate disaster?
2023-03-06 12:56:00 The Guardian By Jack Shenker On a bright, chilly morning in January, seven women some young, some older, all condemned as guilty by the state gathered at Southwark crown court. The group had already been convicted of criminal damage following an Extinction Rebellion (XR) action in April 2021 that involved breaking windows at the headquarters of Barclays Bank: a financial institution responsible for more than 4bn of fossil fuel financing during that year alone.
Meet the ‘inactivists’ tangling up climate change in culture - Taipei Times
A new tactic of dismissing green policies as elitist is on the rise, and has zoned in on a bitter row over a disused airport in Kent By Jack Shenker / The Guardian In May last year, as the world was convulsed by the COVID-19 pandemic and global infections topped 4 million, a strange video began appearing in the feeds of some Facebook users.
Jack Shenker - Special Features - Conversations with Stuart Hall: Unravelling and Resistance
Sunday Jun212020 Conversations with Stuart Hall: Unravelling and Resistance A keynote lecture given for the Stuart Hall Foundation's Third Annual Public Conversation at Conway Hall, London, in February 2020 -Subsequently published in Soundings -Summer 2020 In 2004, Stuart Hall sat down with the broadcaster Philip Dodd to reflect on his life so far and on the political reality that surrounded them.
Now We Have Your Attention by Jack Shenker
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Já Estão a Prestar Atenção
A primeira investigação de fundo sobre os movimentos políticos - jovens, ativistas, clandestinos ou alternativos - que moldarão o mundo nas próximas décadas. A paisagem política está a mudar a um ritmo alarmante, tão rápido que não há artigos de opinião ou reportagens aprofundadas que consigam fazer sentido das alterações que têm sido registadas.
Now We Have Your Attention
'One of the most important and compelling books I've ever read, by one of Britain's most gifted writers' - OWEN JONES Now We Have Your Attention makes sense of what is happening in British politics by taking a radically different perspective: the people's.
Jack Shenker - Special Features - Tilbury: Britain's Brexiteer Town At The World's End
--- Watch the BBC Newsnight film based on this story, broadcast December 2017: --- Read the written piece below. For a full version of the long read interspersed with Rob Stothard's remarkable images, view it on the WorldPost website here TILBURY, England — On Saturday afternoons, 20 short miles to the east of central London, Tilbury Football Club comes alive. Players drive up to the stadium’s clubhouse and knock the mud off their boots onto the grass outside.
The outcome of the next election could be decided in just a few weeks’ time
Labour has five years to reflect on why it lost but it won’t stand a chance in 2024 unless it picks a credible leader now by Jonathan Lis / January 16, 2020 / Leave a comment Moral victory is not enough, says Lis. Photo: Hannah McKay/PA Wire Jeremy Corbyn has announced his resignation, and five candidates have won the backing of fellow MPs and MEPs: Keir Starmer, Rebecca Long-Bailey, Lisa Nandy, Jess Phillips and Emily Thornberry.
Why Corbyn-backing MPs aren’t all supporting Rebecca Long-Bailey
Analysis of Labour leadership nominations reminds us MPs' decisions aren't always rational—and the party's factional lines are blurrier than we might think by Tom King / January 10, 2020 / Leave a comment Rebecca Long-Bailey is seen by many as the “continuity Corbyn” candidate—so why haven’t all Corbyn’s backers nominated her?
Election 2019: A tale of two towns
Comparing the political histories of Mansfield and Huntingdon throws England’s realignment into sharp relief—and raises dark questions for Labour about whether it can ever rebuild the “red wall” by Tom Clark / December 23, 2019 / Leave a comment Boris Johnson on the campaign trail with Ben Bradley, now returned as Conservative MP for Mansfield.
Labour’s problems run far deeper than Brexit or Corbyn
Something more fundamental is reshaping the political landscape, writes a former chair of Vote Leave by John Mills / December 20, 2019 / Leave a comment Photo: Hannah McKay/PA Archive/PA Images Labour’s heavy defeat needs to be set in the context of the difficulties which left-of-centre political parties have experienced well beyond the borders of the UK.
Election 2019: Reflecting on Possibility
There was something gut-punching about the election results on Thursday night that went deeper than mere disappointment; something to do with a sense of having lived through years of political shape-shifting, as tiring as they were thrilling, only to see institutional power crystallise for the final time into its worst iteration yet. All that is nonsense, of course. A great many things have churned up the political landscape over the past decade, and none of them have disappeared.
Why I’m getting saucy messages from John McDonnell, Jo Swinson and James Cleverly
E-mail subject lines have become a key part of digital campaigning—like this one from Jeremy Corbyn, reading “Update about last night.” Photo: Prospect My name is Marie Le Conte and until recently, I thought I had a problem. I am a political journalist and retain a respectful amount of distance between my personal life and the politicians I write about, but the emails they were sending me told a different story.
Can the Corbyn comeback overcome its Corbyn problem?
Corbyn’s unpopularity could be the thing that scuppers Corbynism this election. Photo: PA After a tepid first half of the election campaign, Labour started to make up ground in the polls. Record numbers of people registered to vote, most of them young. Labour’s cash splurge on the WASPI campaign hit home on the doorstep in a way that free broadband didn’t. Yet something else is repeatedly coming up on the doorstep, too.
The asymmetric election: why Corbyn does not need to win a majority but Johnson does
The asymmetric election: why Corbyn does not need to win a majority but Johnson does Unlike the Labour leader, the PM has no potential coalition partners left by Rachel Sylvester / November 19, 2019 / Leave a comment Johnson’s election gamble really is all or nothing, says Sylvester.
Opinion | Britain’s Election Is Not About Brexit
It’s a fight between two radically different visions for what society should look like. By Jack Shenker Mr. Shenker writes about British politics. Nov. 18, 2019, 11:56 a.m. ET Protestors in Uxbridge, England, demonstrated against Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Saturday. LONDON — The general election next month, Britain’s fourth national vote in as many years, will be a moment of reckoning for one of the world’s oldest democracies.
Widerstand - Dies ist die Rechnung
Widerstand Eine Protestwelle rollt über den Globus, denn eine Generation fürchtet um ihre blanke Existenz Jack Shenker | Ausgabe 45/2019 19 Nicht genehm, nicht genehmigt: Demonstrant in Hongkong Foto: Sebastian Wells/Ostkreuz „Ich bin 22 Jahre alt und das ist mein Abschiedsbrief“, sind die ersten Worte des jungen Mannes. Der Großteil seines Gesichts ist mit einem schwarzen Tuch verhüllt; nur die Augen sind zu sehen mit ihrem müden und harten Blick unter dem ungeordneten Pony.
Why Corbynism matters
The inside story of the movement behind the man—and why, whoever wins the electoral battle, the Left is winning the war by Jack Shenker / November 8, 2019 / Leave a comment Corbynism is about more than just Jeremy Corbyn. Photo: Prospect composite Late in October, just as temperatures dropped and the nights drew in, more than 1,500 people joined an online conference call to discuss how Labour might win the upcoming general election.
Why Corbynism matters
The inside story of the movement behind the man—and why, whoever wins the electoral battle, the Left is winning the war by Jack Shenker / November 8, 2019 / Leave a comment Corbynism is about more than just Jeremy Corbyn. Photo: Prospect composite Late in October, just as temperatures dropped and the nights drew in, more than 1,500 people joined an online conference call to discuss how Labour might win the upcoming general election.
Global protests being led by children of the financial crash - Taipei Times
Fri, Nov 01, 2019 - Page 9ã From Hong Kong to South America to London, young people have had enough of economic, social and ecological collapse By Jack Shenker / The Guardian Illustration: Mountain People âIâm 22 years old, and this is my last letter,â the young man begins. Most of his face is masked with black fabric; only his eyes, tired and steely, are visible below a messy fringe. âIâm worried that I will die and wonât see you any more,â he continues, his hands trembling.
Now We Have Your Attention
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Now We Have Your Attention
"One of the most important and compelling books I've ever read, by one of Britain's most gifted writers. If you want to understand why we are in this crisis, listen to the voices all too often airbrushed from the political conversation" OWEN JONES Now We Have Your Attention makes sense of what is happening in British politics by taking a radically different perspective: the people’s.
Now We Have Your Attention: An evening with Jack Shenker and Ellie Mae O’Hagan
We are delighted to welcome award-winning radical politics and protest reporter, Jack Shenker, to discuss his latest work; Now We Have Your Attention: The New Politics of the People. Now We Have Your Attention uncovers the root causes of our current political crisis, and the future direction of British politics through the lives of ordinary individuals. Shenker takes readers into communities hollowed by austerity and economic disadvantage; against the backdrop of Westminster chaos.
Jack Shenker: Books that inspire change and embrace hope
Recommendations Jack Shenker, the author of Now We Have Your Attention, sharessix powerful books that have inspired change and influenced his own writing. Jack Shenker 18 September 2019 Jack Shenker. Photo: Pete Bartlett Reading is a curious thing. Curling up with a book often feels like the most private, personal experience in the world.
Now We Have Your Attention by Jack Shenker
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Now We Have Your Attention : The New Politics of the People
"One of the most important and compelling books I've ever read, by one of Britain's most gifted writers. If you want to understand why we are in this crisis, listen to the voices all too often airbrushed from the political conversation" OWEN JONESNow We Have Your Attention makes sense of what is happening in British politics by taking a radically different perspective: the people's.
Jack Shenker - Special Features - 'Now We Have Your Attention' - New Book Out In September 2019
*** Paperback release featuring a new prologue by the author: 3rd September 2020 *** "We live in an age of crisis: a world where chaos has become commonplace, and the fabric of our politics appears to be coming apart at the seams. In Britain, when the crisis is analysed for us on television and in the papers, it is usually images of Westminster that we are shown, and it is primarily politicians’ voices that we hear. This book tells a different story.
“Everyone’s hammered by the time the belly dancers come on”: Inside the annual kebab event that epitomises the Westminster bubble
Imagine this, but you’re sat next to several parliamentary advisors under green lighting. Photo: Pexel It isn’t always clear where the Westminster bubble starts and where it ends. We know that it exists and that some people are definitely of it while others definitely aren’t, but its edges can be blurry. Still, there is now a convenient way to establish someone’s status: mention the Kebab Awards and see how they react.
Opinion | Centrists Won’t Save Britain
Liberals are peddling an ahistorical nostalgia. The people aren’t buying it. By Jack Shenker Mr. Shenker is at work on a book about politics and social movements in Britain. Aug.
Jack Shenker reviews ‘The Queue’ by Basma Abdel Aziz, translated by Elisabeth Jaquette · LRB 30 November 2017
Two years ago, the Egyptian tourism ministry released a 90-second video as part of its $68 million partnership with the global advertising giant JWT. Accompanied by soaring violins and pounding drums, it whisks viewers past images of opulent swimming pools, quad-bike races in the desert, campfires presided over by smiling, crinkled Bedouins. No one speaks. ‘This is our story, our drama, our theatre, our poetry, our choreography,’ the on-screen captions announce. ‘This is Egypt.’
Digital technologies play politics: let’s use them for democracy – Jack Shenker | Aeon Essays
Shortly after midnight on Friday, 28 January 2011, someone in 26 Ramses Street, a nondescript 12-storey office building in downtown Cairo, turned off Egypt’s internet. No email, web access, WhatsApp or Skype. It didn’t matter. A few hours later, Egyptians came out and made a revolution anyway. Tahrir Square, the physical epicentre of that revolution, was many things: a performance, a myth, an arena of battle and an alternative story.
Opinion | The Journalist and the Revolution
Red Century Oct. 16, 2017 At the house on the corner, past the cigarette kiosk and the laundry place and the twisted metal barricade assembled to shield passers-by from gunfire, I pitched in with a group of kids carrying rocks. It was early February 2011. Egypt, where I had been working as a reporter for several years, was engulfed in revolution, and rubble was being ferried to the rooftop by protesters in an effort to defend Tahrir Square from a counterrevolutionary assault.
Egypt: The New Dictatorship | by Joshua Hammer
On July 3, 2013, General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, chief of staff of the Egyptian Armed Forces, appeared on national television. Clad in a military uniform and black beret, he announced that he was acting on “a call for help by the Egyptian people” and seizing power from the Muslim Brotherhood.
The Egyptian Army’s violent trail of breadcrumbs
“The army is a killing machine.” - These were words chosen by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi to address his soldiers as minister of defense. In a video leaked nearly three years ago, he explained why the army is incapable of fighting terrorism, why it should not partake in it and vowed this will never be its role. “It is not an arresting machine, we don’t know how to arrest,” he explained. “Why don’t we say this in the media?
Egypt: the deep state’s war on journalism
The state is aware that free press means more accountability and their fear of being monitored, exposed, or held accountable indicates how fragile and insecure they are. “Listen only to me” - Even if he had tried, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El Sisi could not have described his authoritarian military reign better. Exactly one year since he demanded the people not believe the “enemies of the nation”, the margin for freedom of speech and expression has progressively shrunk to absurd levels.
Campaigning achievements so far
I never knew Giulio Regeni personally. We corresponded briefly in 2014, as he was seeking advice on where to undertake his doctoral studies. We had quite a few friends in common though, as we were both young scholars from the same country, Italy, affiliated to institutions in the same country, the UK, and working broadly on similar topics, at the intersection between the neoliberal reforms of the Egyptian economy and authoritarian state power.
Send them to Egypt
When Giulio was murdered, it had a profound impact on me and others not just because of the shocking injustice, but also because it tore down;the illusions of our own defences. I never knew Giulio Regeni. I wish I had; his research was important and fascinating, and everyone close to him recalls a funny, warm and deeply humane young man. But when news of his disappearance first spread in those sickening days following the January 25 anniversary in 2016, I felt like I knew him.
The Egyptians: A Radical History of Egypt’s Unfinished Revolution - Afterword
[This is an edited extract from Jack Shenker’s book, published in the UK as The Egyptians: A Radical Story (Allen Lane / Penguin) and in the US as The Egyptians: A Radical History of Egypt’s Unfinished Revolution (New Press) – for more details, see here.] In late February 2016, President Sisi strode up to the podium at Cairo’s El Galaa theatre, looked into the waiting television cameras, and addressed the nation. “Don't listen to anyone but me,” he declared. “I am dead serious.
The Egyptians: A Radical History of Egypt’s Unfinished Revolution
In late February 2016, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi strode up to the podium at Cairo’s Galaa Theater, looked into the waiting television cameras, and addressed the nation. “Don’t listen to anyone but me,” he declared. “I am dead serious. Be careful, no one should abuse my patience and good manners to bring down the state. I swear to god that anyone who comes near it, I will remove him from the face of the Earth. I am telling you this as the whole of Egypt is listening.
Egypt, Rebranded
In mid-March 2015, I flew into Sharm El-Sheikh airport. The runway sits on a flat strip of sand between the Red Sea and the city’s “Ring of Steel” security wall, beyond which the Sinai mountain range, dotted with sunken canyons and high gardens filled with pomegranates, almonds, and mulberries, stretches for more than a hundred miles to the north.
Geographical’s Books of the Year 2016
With Christmas just round the corner, we present a round-up of Geographical’s top literary picks of 2016, ideal gifts for the geographers in your gift lists It’s been another busy year in the publishing world, with the Geographical offices packed to bursting with tomes on issues from across the geographical spectrum – from maps to Mongols, lions to landscapes.
Unwelcome to Egypt
From the waterfront at Ismailia, a mid-sized Egyptian city situated halfway up the Suez Canal, two things are visible. The first is a slow-motion parade of colossal container ships, each bearing up to a hundred-thousand tonnes of cargo; from the right angle, the vessels appear to be floating ethereally through the sand dunes and rocks that rise and fall as far as the eye can see behind them.
Behind the Sun | The Nation
At what point did the revolution in Egypt go off the rails? This was the question that my friends and I spent most of our time discussing in smoke-filled rooms in Cairo, with deepening alarm, in the years following the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak in 2011. Islamists swept the elections; protests turned into clashes and massacres; prisons filled with young men and women; and an avuncular, menacing general took over.
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