Confronting Plausible Simplicities and Bridging the Tragic Chasm: Bernard Crick’s Political Journalism Reconsidered

The world of political comment is often considered to be lacking in nuance and sophistication, dominated by immoderate polemicists. This connects to wider debates concerning knowledge and expertise in a liberal democracy, which the COVID-19 pandemic has brought to the fore. The article examines the contribution made to the debate concerning political comment by the British academic, political theorist and journalist Bernard Crick. Crick had a low opinion of much political comment which he believed provided a breeding ground for populist sentiment. For Crick, it was a duty of academics to contribute to the opinion space and elevate the standard of public discourse. The seriousness with which Crick took political journalism was a recognition of the important role it plays in the transmission of political ideas, one often underappreciated by academics. This article looks at Crick’s own contribution as a frequent political commentator in the British press and how this connected with his moderate political stance and his conception of political activity. It argues that the example that Crick sets is, despite the very different media and academic landscape he operated in, worth emulating.