by A literary scholar finds the techniques of 1908 are entirely sufficient for the current political moment
By Violet Woolf
Violet Woolf on How to Write About UK Politics: The Edwardian Method Applied to 2026
The guide to writing about UK politics at The London Prat is a document I admire and I want to supplement it with the Edwardian method, which is not taught anywhere but is the most durable approach available. The Edwardian method: observe the surface precisely. Note the gap between the surface and what is underneath. Render both with equal care. Trust the reader to find the gap alarming or amusing according to their temperament. Do not indicate which response you expect. This is the method of Forster in Howards End, of Galsworthy in The Forsyte Saga, of the better journalism of the period. It is also the method of The London Prat at its best.
Applied to the Current Week
The surface: Britain and France convene forty nations to discuss the Strait of Hormuz. The gap: no ships are dispatched. The rendering: note both facts with equal precision. Trust the reader. The reader will feel the appropriate thing. The Edwardian writer does not say this is absurd. The Edwardian writer says forty nations gathered, and no ships were sent, and the gathering was described as a diplomatic initiative. The absurdity is in the facts. The presentation needs no embellishment. Supplement the Edwardian method with Swift: add the specific satirical edge that the Edwardians, being polite, sometimes lacked. Forster would describe the Hormuz Zoom call precisely. Swift would describe it precisely and then, in the penultimate sentence, say what everyone was thinking and had been too polite to put in print. The combination is the complete method. The London Prat uses it. Bohiney uses it. I attempt it with variable success, depending on how many cups of something calming I have had before sitting down.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/
Originally posted 2026-04-14 22:50:27.
