Nick Cohen is none of the following;

“A Right Wing Hawk”, “Someone who has metamorphosed into a Neo Con cheerleader”, “ an Islamophobe”, “.. following in the footsteps of David Aranovitch and Oliver Kam by ratting on the Left” etc, etc.

Luminaries of the Left such as George Galloway, Ken Livingstone and John Pilger have thrown all these charges at Cohen.

They are lazy and wrong.

Cohen has been a consistent spokesman over the years on matters such as Civil Liberty, and the relationship between the Labour Party, whether in Government or Opposition and the rest of Society.

He asks tough questions and reflects on issues such as Public Ownership, Education and the NHS, which the Left would rather bury their head in the sand over.

Nick Cohen is controversial, but that’s his job as a columnist and analyst for the Observer and New Statesman.

I think he is profoundly wrong about Iraq and the comparisons regarding the ‘Thirties and facing down Fascism in Europe are spurious ones, but is important that we on the Left have these debates for a myriad of reasons, not least to remember who we are and what we are trying to do, and to banish the dog days of the ‘Seventies and ‘Eighties during which winning intellectual and moral debate superseded winning elections.

The losers? Not those vanquished in debates over the Labour Party Rule Book. It was the British People forced to endure eighteen years of Tory Rule as the Labour Party did it’s best to destroy the Progressive Left in this country.

So it was in this spirit that I came to Cohen’s recently updated version of “What’s Left?”

What a disappointment. The problem lies with the fact that Cohen is a lazy with his denunciations as his above listed enemies.

Thus, if you are against the Iraq War you are immediately, “self defeating, fraudulent and vicious”. That’s all of us apparently. We “forget about Saddam’s victims” and that we believed that the War was “financial mania, and an excuse to batter the Crescent with the Cross”. Finally anyone who went on the February 2003 March went “morally berserk”.

He constantly refers to Galloway as the “Leader” of the Stop the War Movement and thus those who speak up against Blair’s folly are immediately in agreement with George’s bonkers alliance with the bigots of the SWP and (dis) RESPECT.

 Galloway is an aberration rather than the norm and never did my Mum’s lament that; “Empty vessels make the most noise” seem more appropriate. Vain, crude and bullying and it’s a real shame and a complete irony that he now sits for George Lansbury’s old Constituency of Bow in the East End of London. The veteran anti Fascist would be bemused that a Leftist such as Galloway could sit cosily with a bunch of misogynistic bigots, and religious zealots. 

And therein lie Cohen’s problems and the Achilles Heel of this tract.

He finds it impossible to make a connection such as this; I have great respect for Ken Livingstone and his progressive work as Mayor of London. This does not however, mean that I endorse Ken’s ridiculous and offensive succour of the IRA in the ‘Eighties.

Cohen is obsessed with factions of the Left being somehow representative of large swathes of those on the Progressive side.

Thus for a contemporary critique of Socialism I found it depressingly lazy that Cohen devotes a thirty five page chapter to the rise and fall of the Workers Revolutionary Party, an ‘Eighties sect with no more than fifty odd nutters for members, only made famous because of Vanessa Redgrave’s involvement and the sexual antics of it’s Stalinist leader Gerry Healy.

A totally bizarre and baffling interlude with absolutely no relevance to today’s Left.

In addition there is another meandering load of waffle about the Major Government’s appeasement of Milosovic, and it’s refusal to lift the arms embargo against the Bosnian Government. I assume the point is to draw a comparison with Blair’s intervention in Iraq, but the circumstances are completely different and he fails to produce a narrative that makes sense, or is logical.

Another of the books failings is its obsession with Foreign Policy, important but way down the list of voter concerns and whilst Iraq caused the Labour Party no end of trouble, I don’t think it did any lasting damage, as the consequences are there for all to see meaning any more interventions are much less likely.

What the Left should be talking about are issues such as the creeping authoritarianism of the State, private involvement in Public Services, climate change and the new economic conditions of the 21^st Century.

 Nick Cohen’s book is a minor contribution and has been given far too much significance given its massive and obvious flaws

A glaring miss by the otherwise impressive ManUre loanee striker Frazier Campbell prevented successive three point hauls at Walton Street for the Tigers, which would have provided firm evidence of the magic ingredient for success at this level; consistency.

This was a solid performance but t’ Blades offered very little in front of goal, and apart from Stead’s clinical strike just before half time resulting from Ashbee switching off and failing to do a basic closing down job, United threatened little and City dominated possession throughout the game without really taking the game by the scruff of the neck.

The hubristic persistence with the dreaded 4-3-3, a nominal formation at the best of times and usually produced 4-5-1, has been dropped for the more traditional 4-4-2. But this has only served to highlight the problems down the left flank.

The form of the admirable Brown who provides solid leadership skills from centre back, has seen Delaney’s position usurped as Turner is the better foil for the former Colchester stopper, and now the Irishman seems to playing at left back because there is no one else. Dawson’s failings (distribution and crossing) mean that unless there is an injury crisis, his Tigers career is effectively over.

As well as a genuine left full back, any forays into the transfer market must surely focus on a left footed mid fielder, preferably an out and out winger. Elliot is out of favour, rightly so, and there now seems to be a make do and mend approach to this position. Bryan Hughes was tasked with it yesterday and although he was game, it seemed no coincidence that virtually no positive moves came from this flank. Indeed Hughes has a wretched game surrendering possession at will and failing to support Delaney with defensive duties. This resulted in United funnelling play when not in possession, down the right hand side, and Garcia plus the front two dropping off to forage being forced down blind alleys.

Parity was restored ten minutes into the second half when Campbell was felled, Windass converting the resulting spot kick, although I suspect the forward lost control of the ball and engineered the clash. Had it gone against City I would have felt hard done by.

Turner and Brown didn’t give former England International James Beattie a sniff and had the wiles of the injured Okocha been readily available (he gave a fitful under par cameo from the bench) then I feel we would have had that extra bit of quality to take maximum points.

City Line up: Myhill, Ricketts, Turner, Brown, Delaney, Garcia (Featherstone 83), Ashbee, Livermore (Okocha 72), Hughes, Campbell (McPhee 77), Windass.
Subs Not Used: Duke, Dawson. Att: 20,185

Her Majness accidentally discovers Westminster Council’s mobile Library by the Staff Quarters after the Corgis run amok, and so is launched, much to the dismay of her snooty officials, a late-in-life love affair with literature.

I am a huge fan of Alan Bennett’s work due to his use of humour which draws out the pathos in everyday life, and this is a supreme example as we see how Elizabeth is separated from everyone else on all kinds of levels, due to an accident of birth but in common with everyone, she yearns for those routine encounters that we take for granted.

George Best, and to a certain extent Paul Gascoigne suffered similar isolation as they simply had no one on their level, especially in Best’s case, with whom they could empathise and relate to, and this book is about that horrible feeling of loneliness in a crowded environment.

We have no idea what the Queen is really like as an individual and this gives Bennett considerable scope in his characterisation, but I would warm to the woman he has portrayed much more than the ice cold fish as portrayed by Helen Mirren in Stephen Frears’ recent Oscar winning film.

I don’t agree with the concept of a Monarchy full stop. But if we have to be subject to one, then Queen Elizabeth as an individual, has done and continues to do the job supremely well and I admire her fortitude, as it must be an onerous task at her age. If it wasn’t for her meddling, inbred, amoral half wit of an eldest son she could be enjoying a long and restful retirement, but she must realise that if Jug Ears ever got the gig then the Monarchy would be over for good in a storm of ill feeling and recrimination, so it is that very British trait of Duty that keeps her at the helm hoping her son falls before she does.

 Bennett’s over arching thesis is that literature has the power to educate, encourage empathy and a more rounded, less abrasive view of things is something that I feel passionately about. Reading is just so important for a myriad of reasons, and in this case it is subversive and enables the Queen to see through her toadying advisors, and her oleaginous Prime Minister.

Overall the experience was extremely positive, and confirmed my innate optimism that it is always better to expose and challenge yourself to move forward in matters of personal development.

For once Hull City provided the balm to sporting wounds inflicted by other teams that I follow, when matters are usually reversed and I am hoping for succour in the wake of some Tigers related embarrassment.

I would have traded this 3-1 victory if Hull F.C had overcome Wigan in the second fixture of the day at Walton Street, and perhaps even other Tiger related joy instead of the total fiasco that was Ireland’s Rugby World Cup campaign which reached it’s humiliating climax with defeat to Argentina, the nadir already having been reached with surely the most abject performance in Irish sporting history against Georgia.

But such is life and at least the whole sporting weekend wasn’t wiped out as City rode their luck and beat Ipswich in some comfort and, dare we even whisper it a smidgeon of style was present in some of the moves during the later stages of the first half.

The 12.30 kick off, allied to a below average attendance made for a flat atmosphere inside the stadium, but the first half contained more goalmouth action than the rest of the season combined, beginning with the Tractor Boys rattling the frame of Myhill’s goal on two occasions and culminating in the visitors netting with seconds to go before the break.

By then Henrik Pedersen had helped himself to a brace of goals and Wayne Brown also broke his duck for the Tigers, smartly heading in a well worked short corner.

Jay Jay