A consistent socialist rips both Blair and Corbyn to shreds

My world-view is in many ways utterly different from that of Nick Cohen, author of "What's Left?" and "You can't read this book."

But unlike some socialists he is consistent and I always find his views interesting.

Nick has written an article on his blog here which excoriates the Labour party, making complete mincemeat first of Jeremy Corbyn and his supporters, then of Tony Blair and his. He begins as follows:

"Jeremy Corbyn encapsulated everything that was deceitful about his campaign to be leader of Her Majesty’s Opposition when he claimed he wanted to prioritise “the needs of the poor and the human rights of us all”. From the point of view of the poor and the oppressed, his words were a grim joke.

Like many from the Left’s dark corners, Corbyn does not believe in the human rights of “us all”. He is concerned only with the rights of those whose oppression is politically useful. If the oppressed’s suffering can be blamed on the West, he will defend them. If not, he is on their enemies’ side.

A short and far from comprehensive tour of the regimes Corbyn has supported includes the geriatric Cuban dictatorship, the corrupt and extraordinarily incompetent Chavistas who have come close to bankrupting oil-rich Venezuela, and Russian imperialists who have used force to redraw Europe’s boundaries."

He goes on:

"Not just Corbyn and his supporters but much of the liberal Left announce their political correctness and seize on the smallest sexist or racist “gaffe” of their opponents. Without pausing for breath, they move on to defend radical Islamist movements which believe in the subjugation of women and the murder of homosexuals. They will denounce the anti-Semitism of white neo-Nazis, but justify Islamist anti-Semites who actually murder Jews in Copenhagen and Paris.

"In a telling vignette, Corbyn himself defended a vicar from the supposedly liberal and tolerant Church of England who had promoted the conspiracy theory that Jews were responsible for the 9/11 attacks. Opponents who called for the church authorities to discipline him were not anti-racists fighting an ideology that had led to the murder of millions. On the contrary, said Corbyn, the vicar was the victim, “under attack” because he had “dared to speak out against Zionism”."

But it is not just the left of the Labour party who Nick Cohen criticises:

"Blair has made tens of millions advising regimes as corrupt and repressive as the dictatorships of Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan. We have seen nothing like this since Lloyd George’s day, perhaps not since the Georgian oligarchy. It is not just Labour members who are disturbed by the spectacle of an ex-prime minister using his contacts to join the global superrich. But Labour members find it more shocking than most. They expect their politicians to retire to chairs in academia, or to posts at the United Nations or some other international organisation or charity. They will not allow another generation of centrist politicians to use the Labour party as a stepping-stone to careers helping the rich maximise their fortunes.

To put it another way, Blair has discredited Blairism, and Corbyn’s rise is a reaction to his decline."


He concludes


"Unless Labour changes very fast and very soon, it will cease to be a force for good in the world. I hope I am wrong but I can’t see that change happening in my lifetime."