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George Eaton (journalist)

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George Eaton (born 27 November 1986) is a British writer and journalist. He is Senior Editor (Politics) of the New Statesman, a position he was appointed to in January 2024. He was previously political editor from 2014 to 2018 and joint deputy editor from 2018 to 2019, when he was moved to Assistant Editor after his controversial Roger Scruton interview.

Career

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Eaton was educated at Berkhamsted School and later studied at the University of Warwick between 2005 and 2008, graduating with a first class degree in History and Politics.[1] He was Secretary of Warwick Politics Society between 2006 and 2007.

After working for PoliticsHome,[2] he was recruited to the New Statesman in 2009 by editor Jason Cowley as a staff writer and later edited the magazine's political blog The Staggers, which was named online comment site of the year at the 2013 Comment Awards.[3][4] He was political editor of the New Statesman from 2014 to 2018, joint deputy editor from 2018 to 2019. After his controversial Roger Scruton article, he moved to the position of assistant editor. Since February 2020 he has worked as Senior Online Editor.[5] He has also written for The Times, The Sunday Times and The Evening Standard.[6][7][8]

Eaton has interviewed public intellectuals including Francis Fukuyama,[9] Christopher Hitchens,[10] Nassim Nicholas Taleb,[11] Yanis Varoufakis[12] and Ben Bernanke.[13]

In August 2018, Eaton interviewed former chief rabbi Jonathan Sacks who said that Jeremy Corbyn's remark that British Zionists "don't understand English irony" was "the most offensive statement made by a senior British politician since Enoch Powell's 1968 'Rivers of Blood' speech".[14] The interview became a defining moment in the Labour Party's antisemitism crisis.[15]

He has featured in debating panels on various news stations such as BBC News, Sky News and RT, discussing issues including health tourism and Scottish independence. In February 2015, he sat on a panel hosted by the PR company Fishburn at the Royal Society of Arts on the 2015 general election.[16]

In April 2019, Eaton published an article in the New Statesman based on an interview he had had with conservative philosopher Roger Scruton, in which he claimed Scruton had made a number of racist remarks. He quoted Scruton as describing the "invasion of huge tribes of Muslims from the Middle East", and how "each Chinese person is a kind of replica of the next one".[17] The article led to Scruton being removed as a government adviser.[18] In response, Eaton posted a photograph to his public Instagram account showing him drinking from a bottle of champagne with the caption, "The feeling when you get right-wing racist and homophobe Roger Scruton sacked".[19] Various figures criticised Eaton claiming he had mischaracterised Scruton's comments and after journalist Douglas Murray acquired a copy of the actual interview Scruton was totally exonerated.[20][19] Eaton apologized for the Instagram post, but defended the interview. He was demoted several months later.[21] The New Statesman later apologised to Scruton, saying that partial quotations used to promote the article did not accurately represent his views.[20] In July 2019 Scruton was reappointed to the government commission.

References

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  1. ^ "George Eaton LinkedIn profile".
  2. ^ "PM faces five 'nightmare scenarios'". Leeds: Leeds Trinity University. 28 February 2013. Archived from the original on 13 March 2013. Retrieved 6 September 2016.
  3. ^ Burrell, Ian (29 November 2015). "The Media Column: Why the left-wing New Statesman is stubbornly resisting the lure of Corbynmania". The Independent. London: Independent Print Limited. ISSN 0951-9467. OCLC 185201487. Archived from the original on 3 December 2015. Retrieved 6 September 2016.
  4. ^ "Previous Winners Comment Awards 2009-2017". Archived from the original on 12 May 2019. Retrieved 23 June 2019.
  5. ^ Eaton, George (3 February 2020). "Personal News". Twitter. Retrieved 3 February 2020.
  6. ^ "Labour and Lib Dems are natural allies again". The Times. 14 March 2014.
  7. ^ "Labour's Flagging Challenge". The Sunday Times. 23 November 2014.
  8. ^ "George Eaton Evening Standard author page".
  9. ^ "Francis Fukuyama interview: "Socialism ought to come back"". www.newstatesman.com. 17 October 2018.
  10. ^ "Being Christopher Hitchens". www.newstatesman.com. 12 July 2010.
  11. ^ ""I hope for Goldman Sachs' bankruptcy": Nassim Nicholas Taleb on Skin in the Game". www.newstatesman.com. 9 June 2021.
  12. ^ "Yanis Varoufakis: Covid-19 has "turbocharged the EU's failures"". www.newstatesman.com. 11 May 2020.
  13. ^ "Ben Bernanke: Austerity went too far in the UK". www.newstatesman.com. 8 June 2021.
  14. ^ "Corbyn's Zionist remarks were "most offensive" since Enoch Powell, says ex-chief rabbi". www.newstatesman.com. 10 June 2021.
  15. ^ "A senior British rabbi takes the fight to Jeremy Corbyn". The Economist.
  16. ^ Keirle, Matthew (20 February 2015). "Fishburn's guide to the general election: Planning for Uncertainty". PRWeek. London. Archived from the original on 28 February 2015. Retrieved 6 September 2016.
  17. ^ "Roger Scruton: "Cameron's resignation was the death knell of the Conservative Party"". www.newstatesman.com. 7 June 2021.
  18. ^ "Government housing adviser Sir Roger Scruton fired". Property Week. 10 April 2019.
  19. ^ a b Waterson, Jim (25 April 2019). "New Statesman and Spectator in dirty tricks row over Scruton tape". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 30 November 2019.
  20. ^ a b Quinn, Ben (23 July 2019). "Roger Scruton gets government job back after 'regrettable' sacking". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 30 November 2019.
  21. ^ "The New Statesman apologises to Roger Scruton". Coffee House. 8 July 2019. Archived from the original on 27 August 2019. Retrieved 7 February 2020.

Bibliography

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  • Sadiq Khan: The Making of a Mayor (Biteback Publishing 2018) ISBN 1785901656
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