The State of Us: The good news and the bad news about our society

Jon Snow, national treasure and the last of the ‘big beasts’ of TV news, finally gives vent to his feelings on the state of the nation, from inequality and out of touch elites to the vital work of journalism in the social media age.

We are living through a time of tremendous upheaval. Society is growing ever more unequal, and elites increasingly detached, with the Honourable Members ensconced in their Upper and Lower Houses. Jon Snow’s own wake up call was the Grenfell Tower fire when, gazing up at the smoke still pouring from the building in the early hours, he felt the weight of the obligation as a journalist to understand what had happened.

Tracing key moments in his incredible career, from getting thrown out of university for protesting apartheid to his reporting on major global developments everywhere from America to Iran, Snow argues that the greatest problems at home and abroad so often come down to inequality and an unwillingness to confront it. One of the few ways that we can challenge unfairness is by getting the news out, but traditional media have been facing their own battles recently, with local news collapsing and big tech companies decimating revenues.

We can do better- the time in which we live is undeniably full of challenges, but it is also full of potential. If we begin by telling the truth about our situation and then do something about it, the coming years have the potential to be a new golden age.