It is now an archive for my newspaper and magazine pieces. My blog can now be read at: www.spectator.co.uk/stephenpollard
Politics, economics and culture from the master. Unmissable.
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Melanie Phillips' peerless blog. Read, and learn.
Daniel Finkelstein's Times Comment Central
A daily must-read.
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Lots of interesting nibbles - and a ruthless swatter of economic gibberish.
Harry's Place
Must-read left of centre blog from writers who understand the threat to the West.
Clive Davis
Always interesting selection of culture and politics, from an Anglo-American bent.
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Libertarian blog, packed every day.
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The thoroughly sensible thoughts of renowned left-wing academic Norman Geras, Professor of Government at Manchester. And cricket, too.
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Developed by:
| April | 18 |
| 2006 |
As the lack posts over the past couple of weeks shows, I've had other things to do and have not been in touch with the blogosphere. I'm back now. The most striking development is that The Euston Manifesto seems to be everywhere at the moment.
Much as I wish its signatories luck, I think they’re fighting a losing - lost - battle. So here’s my version. I'll call it The Maida Vale Manifesto.
If anyone else wants to sign it, email me and I'll post your name. But I don't expect to be flooded with emails. I suspect I'll have to change the 'we' to 'I'.
I'm also going to try an experiment. As readers may know, I had to remove comments because it took so long for me to read everything and delete the libellous and racist remarks which were being posted.
I do miss having comments. There's nothing I like better than a good argument with people who think I'm wrong. So I'm allowing them on this post, and will see how it goes. If people can behave like civilied human beings then hopefully I'll be able to return to full comments on every post. But if the same old problems emerge, I will unhesitatingly close them down.
Sorry to sound like a school teacher, but it has to be said.
*******************************
The Maida Vale Manifesto
We the undersigned have always thought of ourselves as being on the Left. We have held it as axiomatic that the Left believed in fighting tyranny, liberating the oppressed, and spreading wealth and power.
We have had a rude awakening. When terrorists murdered thousands of American citizens, many of our fellow leftists blamed not the terrorists so much as Americans themselves. They had it coming seemed to be the view of many, if not most, of the Left.
This attitude was typified by the Left’s house magazine, the New Statesman, which wrote this in its editorial after 9/11:
“American bond traders, you may say, are as innocent and as undeserving of terror as Vietnamese or Iraqi peasants. Well, yes and no. Yes, because such large-scale carnage is beyond justification, since it can never distinguish between the innocent and the guilty. No, because Americans, unlike Iraqis and many others in poor countries, at least have the privilege of democracy and freedom that allow them to vote and speak in favour of a different order. If the US often seems a greedy and overweening power, that is partly because its people have willed it. They preferred George Bush to Al Gore and both to Ralph Nader.”
This piece of moral degeneracy was far from being a one-off. In the aftermath of 9/11, we were shocked by the frequent incidence of similar sentiments. The New Statesman again typified this after last July’s tube murders, with a picture of a rucksack on its cover, accompanied by two words in large font: Blair’s bombs.
There are many decent people on the Left, who understand the difference between good and evil, and who do not ally themselves with terrorists, murderers and oppressors. The Prime Minister himself is an outstanding example of this, risking his political support within his party to do the right thing at the right time.
But the very fact that supporting the liberation of Iraq from Saddam entailed such a political risk says almost all that needs to be said about the outlook of most Labour Party MPs and members.
Add to this the relish with which large, mainstream sections of the Left – typified by the Mayor of London - now choose to ally themselves with Islamists who seek to destroy the essence of Western civilisation, who would put to death homosexuals and Jews, and who would put women in metaphorical – and sometimes literal – chains, and the moral cancer that has taken hold of the Left becomes clear.
The evidence of reality is something with which we have had to wrestle. It is not easy to acknowledge what the Left has become, and the mindset of leftists. But that evidence is so overwhelming that we can no longer conceive of describing ourselves as being on the Left in any recognisable form.
Theoretical arguments about what is or is not a proper left-wing position are now meaningless. The mainstream Left has demonstrated clearly which side of the battle to preserve Western civilisation and freedom it is on. The Left, in any recognisable form, is now the enemy.
Stephen Pollard
MessageSpace
Here, here!
I have to say it lacks a certain something, sorry, but itdoes. Nick Cohen emailed after the Euston one to say that he had been arguing for the following to be added to theirs:
"We utterly reject Tim Worstall, Worstallism and all Worstallites."
All manifetoes would be greatly improved by the addition ofthat line.
Other than that, of course, you’re spot on.
"Theoretical arguments about what is or is not a proper left-wing position are now meaningless."
They always were and always have been. Left-liberals are inherently contradictory: the lack of freedom from state enforced economic collectivism cannot survive if there is individual freedom. It is an inherently unstable system.
It is why, taking an example entirely from thin air, you no longer show up on the "left" of the political compass.
Until the "left" of whatever persuasion recognises that equality of outcome is inherently and manifestly unjust, it will always be irrelevent. Unfortunately, anyone making such a recognition is no longer of the "left" as that is its defining characteristic...
Toodle Pip!
PG
I'm really pleased that comments are back.
Unfortunately I have nothing sensible to contribute to this thread.
But thanks, anyway.
What Bob Doney said. I don't have anything to contribute either, but I hope the comments are back permanently.
Congratulations, Stephen, on achieving the impossible: with your Maida Vale Manifesto you've made the Euston Manifesto look popular, well thought out, and worthwhile. Are you doing it on purpose to make them look good?
With you all the way.
Bravo. As I wrote at my blog, if I considered myself a man of the Left, I'd sign it.
Stephen,
'The left in any recognisable form, is now the enemy?' When did you concede to those who claim to be on the left what strike me as avowedly leftwing principles simply because they shout louder and control the guardian editorial pages? I think we all need a little bit more back bone.
NC
Stephen whilst I am not of the Left anymore I couldn't agree with you more and so would be proud to have you add my name to your Maida Vale manifesto.
You could not be more correct. One only has to look at the reporting by some of the media and at the comments by some bloggers following the Tel Aviv bomb to see how their hatred of America and Israel has totally blinded the Left to anything approaching the truth.
As someone who has never considered himself to be "of the left", I can't sign up to your manifesto. I do, however, agree with everything in it.
BTW, so glad to see the comments back, and hope they remain.
I would like to have been able to comment on the polystyrene box, with a mound of parmesan foam inside, but even now I remain speechless.
I will not sign your manifesto and consider your head is stuck deep in the sand.
I supported the war in Iraq but there is no doubt in my mind that it has gone seriously wrong and all thanks to the Bush administration.
They have given a million tons of ammunition to the anti-war movement.
I signed the Euston Manisfesto but will not bother with your one.
I supported the war but there is no doubt that it has gone seriously wrong and all thanks to the combination of malevolence and incompetence of the Bush administration.They have given a million tons of ammunition to the anti-war movement.
Well, your Manifesto should at least attempt bare logical consistency. You can't acknowledge Tony Blair (plus, presumably, his supporters) as both Left and "decent" in one paragraph and declare that "The Left, in any recognisable form, is now the enemy" in another. I mean, it just doesn't make any sense.
Maybe this is a satirical illustration of that power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously.
When were you ever a member of the left?
For at least five years, you've pursued an aggressively pro-Israel, pro-US foreign policy, campaigned against the NHS, and advocated spending public money on private school vouchers. You've moaned about high taxes, and retailed (and written) Adam Smith Institute propaganda. In that time you've never identified with a recognisably left-wing position. Yet, apparently on the strength of once being a Blairite Labour Party researcher, you claim to have only just broken from the left.
This "manifesto" announces nothing except that you now view the term “left-wing” as “meaningless” -- which it plainly is in your hands.
Hasn't always been the case that 'the left' were 'rightists' in disguise? The whole history of the 20th Century, starting with the 'glorious' October Revolution (1917) is virtually litered with such examples. The present situation just perpetuates many precedents. And what about the so-called Labor spin? They've just adopted the abhorent methods used by the'dear leaders' of 'socialist' countries before the 1989 revolutions who, at'party congresses' , were boasting about huge increases in production whilst outside people were shivering in the cold, had no light, and were spending nights and days queuing for basic foodstuffs. Yes, 'the left' does have a 'glorious' tradition of which it should be profoundly ashamed .
I come for the polystyrene, but I stay for the foam. I'm optimistic enough to think that the "left" will soon be up for grabs. The version of leftism that makes excuses for Islamic fascism is largely a product of the 1960s counter-culture, which defined itself as rejecting everything previous generations had believed in, and which was also influenced by covert and overt Soviet propaganda. It ended up rejecting everything Western in favour of anything else it could find. But the members of that generation and their immediate successors have reached the zenith of their influence as writers, editors, film-makers, etc. and are reaching the end of their careers. The times that formed them are a distant memory, the Soviet Union is history, and an awareness of harsh reality is forcing itself onto anyone capable of even vaguely perceiving it.
New Labour has gained power, but has failed to create any clear ideology that could outlive the careers of its dominant figures.
So the Eustonians represent the only segment of the left that has any new thinking and is willing to unambiguously oppose Islamic imperialism. Those things alone give them a critical advantage over the types of leftist they oppose when it comes to building support among the wider (i.e. not political obsessives) public. The fact that they are getting serious attention from the Guardian and the New Statesman, the journals of the left-wing establishment, show how much momentum they have already built up. It is certainly possible that they will become the mainstream left and reclaim it for the cause of civilisation, and everyone who cares about the survival of the West should hope that they succeed.
I agree with everything in this statement, but I won't call myself a "liberal" anymore.
The Left no longer seems to include anyone who values Western civilization as it actually is. It seems filled with people who say "yes but" and offer a series of "corrections" and "improvements" while entirely missing the very real threat of an ideology that cannot and will not co-exist with democracies.
Someday I'd like the choice of voting for a libertarian vs a Republican but I will never vote for a Democrat again, nor will I vote in such a way as to increase the chance a Democrat gets into office.
For a long time, the terms "Left" and "Liberal" have been used interchangeably, at least in America, and I think this has been the source of much confusion.
Liberalism got drunk, was seduced by Leftism, and appears to be waking up, looking in horror at the whore in bed, and jumping out.
Personally, I like the term, "Classical Liberal," as it refers to a pre-Left wing version of liberalism - an emphasis on economic, political, and social freedom. Not without it's own challenges and contradictions, but definitely something that should be differentiated from Leftism (communism, collectivism, anti-capitalism.) as Mr. Pollard is doing here.
And another thing"! (Boy, bring comments back and some people just can't quit.)
Another source of terminological confusion is that, since "Leftism" and "Liberalism" have been confused for so long, some Non-Leftist Liberals feel the need to "take back" Leftism, and criticize the direction the Left has taken, when, in fact, the Left is doing what it is supposed to do - Attacking capitalism, and forming alliances with even the most illiberal groups that share its hatred of capitalism.
Right Wing Liberals of World Unite!
As others have said, I would sign this manifesto, if I had considered myself to be on the left before 9/11, 2001. However, long before then, I had come to believe not only that central planning is evil, but also that the welfare state can (and usually does) destroy the work ethic and personal responsibility, and fosters hypocrisy. I don't want anybody to die from starvation or disease if it can be avoided, of course: if that's enough to make me left-wing then I'll sign the manifesto.
PS: The Pedant-General, Marc Mulholland, and others made very good points.
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"One only has to look at the reporting by some of the media and at the comments by some bloggers following the Tel Aviv bomb to see how their hatred of America and Israel has totally blinded the Left to anything approaching the truth."
Just re read that whoever you are, and then ask yourself whether there might not just possibly be people on the far right who cheer the murder of Jews too. The fact is that there is a Right (and sometimes not so far Right) which is deeply unsympathetic to Israel and not quite signed up to the post 9/11 US agenda either. Michael Ancram's recent attempt to out Chamberlain Chamberlain in the appeasment stakes springs immediately to mind.
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