Aren´t you afraid that as a philosopher you might have been trapped in the ivory tower? How do you as a scholar prevent the danger of talking to academic audience only?

Well, firstly I would say is that talking is itself significant. Talking is not not doing anything...It is not the same as doing nothing. Providing that you are talking the right thing, talking to the right audiences, with the right level of seriousness; and providing people, including yourself, draw real consequences from the things that you say. So it is a difference between idle talk in pub or inside one’s head on the one hand and talking to maybe a group of activists or having a debate or trying to influence people which might make a difference to (say) how they vote in elections. So I think there is an important role in speaking, writing and talking in itself.

I am often speaking outside academic contexts to activists and to the general public and so on. Furthermore, I am myself involved in politics, have been very active in the Green party, and I have been active in non-violent direct action; plus I run a think thank which tries to engage more actively and directly with policy than most academics do. And finally also I myself have a substantial allotment where I grow quite a lot of food for myself and try to kind of keep some kind of roots in a real life. And not just spend all my time inside rooms!

The so called Momentum of Labour party and Jeremy Corbyn gained a lot of attention. Do you see any hope for the future when young people are getting interested in politics than it used to be in the past?

Yes. I think there is hope purely in the fact that young people are getting more interested. And in the way we can get these surges and growths very quickly now. The way we saw with Corbyn. The way we have seen in the US with Bernie Sanders. And there are other examples including here in Europe. This is hopeful, because it means that there is a greater possibility of rapid change than used to be the case. And rapid change is what we need.

On the question of whether what specifically Jeremy Corbyn has to offer is good enough I am quite sceptical. Corbyn has some very good points. He is a good person. Before he became famous I used to go on demonstrations with him for many good causes including against nuclear weapons or against attacking Iraq. And some of his policies are very good. For example he has some good green policies. He himself personally is against nuclear power, which is interesting and encouraging.