"You may say that I am a dreamer/But I am not the only one" John Lennon: "Imagine"

"So come brothers and sisters/For the struggle carries on" Billy Bragg: "The Internationale"


Elizannie has a reading room at 'Clarice's Book Page' http://www.villiersroad.blogspot.com/

Wednesday 24 August 2016

Reprimanding Nick Cohen

A facebook friend alerted me [and others] to a piece in The Spectator by Nick Cohen entitled Why you shouldn’t vote for Jeremy Corbyn This piece purports to be a letter from a Labour Party member 'Chris'.

I don't share my facebook friend, 'Chris' nor Nick Cohen's anti - Jeremy Corbyn views. So I thought I would publish here my slightly edited facebook reply. Feel free to disagree. I am hoping that Nick Cohen or 'Chris' might too.

"Dear Facebook Friend
I am very sad that you felt it necessary to promote this load of twaddle. Publicising your choice for whom you are voting in the Labour Leadership contest is fine and if you feel it necessary to explain why you are supporting that choice, that is also your privilege. But to give publicity to a hatchet job, inaccurate piece like this is, sadly, inexcusable. Within the first few pargraphs 'Chris' uses those incendiary words when describing JC and his friends 'his fellow travelers'. Having described himself ['Chris'] as a 'political anorak' he surely knows the impact and connotation of these words to REAL long time Socialists who have worked for and supported the Labour Party for very many years [in my case I have been a member for over 50 years. Unbelievable isn't it because I don't possibly look old enough] But this also means that I remember a lot of the events that the author describes and is quoting too often incorrectly and or out of context.

I also take issue with 'Chris' describing himself as a 'passionate leftist and liberal'. Apart from this statement being an Oxymoron: 'liberal' suggesting sympathies to the left of the centre ground [ie conservative with a small 'c'] and 'leftist' - according to the Collins dictionary online -"Socialists and Communists are sometimes referred to as leftists", but it is more often used to describe left wing groups abroad. However the term 'leftist' here also smacks of a semi-illiterate description of anyone with Socialist sympathies of views
, along with one of what could be described as a favourite bete noire; 'labourite'. Note: Mr Cohen, having studied PPE will probably argue with me on this but I am discussing the ordinary man on the Clapham omnibus connotations not those student discussions on words in a degree seminar.

To those who know little about Nick Cohen one can find out more about him quickly at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_Cohen
However when one looks at just a few of his biographical details the fact that he 'He was an advocate of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, and a critic of the Stop the War Coalition' explains why he would most probably be on opposite sides to Corbyn [and me!] on lots of occasions. If 'Chris' exists I hope that if he feels impelled to write something like this again he will check his facts a little better, maybe talk to others who can give him more rounded views. And also remember that although I and like thinking party members are now described as being 'on the hard left', 40 years ago I was classified as a moderate. My views haven't changed but the party I love has.




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