The ever interesting Harry Hatchett, one of my favourite blogs, highlights David Aaronovicth's dissection of the New Statesman's recent 'outing' of him as a neocon.

I haven't linked to the Statesman's piece because a) it costs £1 and b) I can't find it on their site. But in short, the cover piece of the 12th May edition (John Kampfner exposes the British neoconservatives) 'outed' the supposed six leading British neocons: David Aaronovitch, John Lloyd, Daniel Finkelstein, Michael Gove, Melanie Phillips, and yours truly.

As usual, the piece itself completely misunderstood the meaning of the phrase. I've bored enough people which this sort of thing already, so I'll pass over that. What is truly bizarre, though, as Aaronovitch's column shows, is their list of British neocons. I can't speak for Daniel Finkelstein, Michael Gove or Melanie Phillips but I have certainly long been happy to describe myself thus, ever since I first came across the work of the likes of Norman Podhoretz, Irving Kristol and Midge Decter - and long before the first Gulf War, let alone 11/9. So no problem there.

But David A, and John L? It reminds me of the Seinfeld episode, Bizarro, in which everything in the world becomes offbeam. Both of them are classic, straight down the line social democrats. The only thing they have in common with neocons - almost literally, the only thing - is that they supported the war in Iraq. But so did Anne Clwyd, so did Nick Cohen, and so did Christopher Hitchens. Are they neocons, too? Only in Bizzaro.
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