Author's Response to Reviewers
| Date | 01 September 2008 |
| Author | Anthony Giddens |
| DOI | 10.1111/j.1478-9302.2008.00160.x |
| Published date | 01 September 2008 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
Author’s Response to Reviewers
Anthony Giddens
House of Lords
It is now about a year since Over to You, Mr Brown was first published (Giddens,
2007).While I was writing the book, I hesitated a lot about the title. If I had called
it ‘The Future of New Labour’ it might have done well in the academic
community, but I wanted to reach a rather wider audience if I could.At the point
when I handed the book over to the publisher, it was not entirely clear that
Gordon Brown would become the new Labour leader. So the title was a risk.
When Richard Heffernan says perhaps I should have called the book ‘Over to
You, Mr Cameron’ he is not so far wrong. At that time people were strongly
touting David Miliband’s chances of replacing Tony Blair. David Cameron and
the Tories might win the next election whatever Labour chose to do. So I did
think of calling the book ‘Over to You, David’ as the best spread bet. Heffernan
is right on another point too. We had to look through 100 photos of Gordon
Brown before we found one where he was smiling – and I mean, really smiling,
rather than producing that tortuous rictus that sometimes passes for a smile. It
took a search of over 1,000 photos before we found one in which Brown was
smiling where he appeared with Blair (well, not really, but the task was not easy).
I thank the authors in this symposium for having agreed to take part and for their
often penetrating observations. Naturally, I do not always agree with what they
say. In the case of Jim Tomlinson I disagree with almost all of his arguments, so I
will start there. He begins by questioning my analysis of globalisation, but in my
view what he says about the issue is mistaken.When the term ‘globalisation’ first
started to be widely bandied about, there were indeed some who suggested, as he
does, that there is little or nothing that is new about what is happening today. Paul
Hirst and Grahame Thompson were among those who popularised this argument
some years ago. However, I do not know any serious student of globalisation who
accepts it now. As David Held and many others have shown, the intensity, scope
and speed of globalisation are all far greater today than in any previous era.
Tomlinson questions the emphasis I put on recent developments in communi-
cations in promoting global interdependence – the role of the telegraph, dating
from the mid-nineteenth century, he says, was far more important. I have dis-
cussed the impact of the telegraph in previous publications and there is no doubt
about its significance. When Samuel Morse sent the first electronic message,
© 2008 The Author. Journal compilation © 2008 Political Studies Association
AU T H O R ’ S R E S P O N S E TO R E V I E W E R S
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‘What hath God wrought’ in May 1844, he initiated a new phase in history. It was
the first time any message was sent across long distance without someone actually
having to travel from point A to point B, and its consequences were far-reaching.
But so was that marriage of satellite and computer technology that over the past
30 years has revolutionised so many aspects of our lives. Take money as an
example. Today money is almost wholly electronic, and is traded on a 24-hour
basis, with billions of transactions taking place every day. There is no precedent
for such a system – with all its problems as well as its advantages.
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