Nick Cohen was on Start the Week this morning defending his book. My copy has not arrived yet because I think Amazon has buggered it up somehow. Last week I keenly read the extract in the Observer though and found a great deal to agree with. I’m glad he’s written this book as it is reassuring to those of us who, though we believe we are coming from the left, feel uncomfortable with certain tendencies of the left in the turbulent times we now live in. It sounds as though most of his targets thoroughly deserve the skewering they receive. I would stop short of saying I feel vindicated because I’m still very much a fence sitter as regards the war in Iraq. As some of you may know I’ve been flirting with the Hitchens/ Amis/ Euston Manifesto position for some time, but political cowardice has stopped me from making a decision either way. In that respect I bet I’m just like many in the parliamentary labour party, who deep down feel a similar ambivalence. Who’s set of ghastly statistics is one supposed to believe? Throughout the Iraq war I have hardly wavered in my support of this Labour government.
One criticism of Cohen’s book is that he fails to address the position of the mainstream left who opposed the war i.e. Robin Cook, Clare Short etc. Robin Cook in particular came out of the whole debacle with dignity and his presence in British politics is sawly missed. I think I’ll save the rest of my rant for the pub (mainly because I can’t be bothered to get it down here), and for other bloggers to rehearse (I think I’m a bit behind the ‘blogosphere’ on this one, and besides, nobody reads this anyway), but I’m looking forward to reading what will no doubt be a refreshing polemic.