Whatever the right and wrongs of the Iraq invasion (would a UN resolution really changed the opinions of the soppy anti Blairite left about the invasion?). Nevertheless – we are in the ‘here and now’ and we have to deal with the situation in Iraq as it is, and not as we wish it to be.
If you are still in favour of the insurgents/terrorists in Iraq as many of the soppy liberal left appear to be, they are acting against there own declared philosophy and the interests of the people of Iraq and appear to be arguing for an undemocratic theocratic dictatorship.
Sunday, April 23, 2006
Why the Euston group offers a new direction for the left
Why the Euston group offers a new direction for the left A disparate set of left-wing thinkers meeting in a London pub has reopened an essential debate on the nature of democracy Will HuttonSunday April 23, 2006The Observer
To be on the left is to be both temperamentally inclined to dissent and to be passionate about your own utopia, which can never be achieved. Condemned to disappointment, you rage at the world, your party and your leader.
Relative peace comes when the right is in power and the left temporarily sinks its differences before the greater enemy. But to survive in office, the left leader must keep utopian factionalism at bay and that means making your followers understand hard realities and tough trade-offs and selling them the ones you make yourself.
Until Iraq, Blair had been pretty effective in squaring away his various critics, but the war has overwhelmed him. Almost every strand of left utopianism has been offended, from human-rights activists to anti-American imperialists, internationalists to straightforward peaceniks. And with Iraq now on the edge of civil war, their every fear and warning has been amply validated. With no strand in the left ready to utter a word in his support, the Prime Minister has had zero leverage to fight back. Down and down he has gone in the eyes of his left-wing critics.
Which is why a small meeting of disillusioned leftist journalists, university lecturers and passionate bloggers in a London pub last year is proving a potentially important political event. Two or three internet bloggers have been arguing strongly for some months that whether it was for or against the Iraq invasion, Western liberal opinion must now stand united behind the attempt to create and entrench the panoply of democratic and human rights in Iraq and be against the religious fundamentalism propelling it down.
Western liberalism has been making a fundamental mistake in claiming that, because they spring from a war so many of us opposed, the anti-Enlightenment jihadists and insurgents are somehow Bush and Blair's responsibility. The right course now is to construct an Iraqi democracy which means backing the hated Blair and Bush.
In short, a strand on the left passionate about democracy is coming to Blair's rescue. What started as a debate among those bloggers has now flourished into a fully fledged - and very long - manifesto, signed by more than 600 people, which covers everything from the Iraq war through anti-Americanism to globalisation and equality. For the full argument, read the Euston Manifesto on www.eustonmanifesto.org.
To be on the left is to be both temperamentally inclined to dissent and to be passionate about your own utopia, which can never be achieved. Condemned to disappointment, you rage at the world, your party and your leader.
Relative peace comes when the right is in power and the left temporarily sinks its differences before the greater enemy. But to survive in office, the left leader must keep utopian factionalism at bay and that means making your followers understand hard realities and tough trade-offs and selling them the ones you make yourself.
Until Iraq, Blair had been pretty effective in squaring away his various critics, but the war has overwhelmed him. Almost every strand of left utopianism has been offended, from human-rights activists to anti-American imperialists, internationalists to straightforward peaceniks. And with Iraq now on the edge of civil war, their every fear and warning has been amply validated. With no strand in the left ready to utter a word in his support, the Prime Minister has had zero leverage to fight back. Down and down he has gone in the eyes of his left-wing critics.
Which is why a small meeting of disillusioned leftist journalists, university lecturers and passionate bloggers in a London pub last year is proving a potentially important political event. Two or three internet bloggers have been arguing strongly for some months that whether it was for or against the Iraq invasion, Western liberal opinion must now stand united behind the attempt to create and entrench the panoply of democratic and human rights in Iraq and be against the religious fundamentalism propelling it down.
Western liberalism has been making a fundamental mistake in claiming that, because they spring from a war so many of us opposed, the anti-Enlightenment jihadists and insurgents are somehow Bush and Blair's responsibility. The right course now is to construct an Iraqi democracy which means backing the hated Blair and Bush.
In short, a strand on the left passionate about democracy is coming to Blair's rescue. What started as a debate among those bloggers has now flourished into a fully fledged - and very long - manifesto, signed by more than 600 people, which covers everything from the Iraq war through anti-Americanism to globalisation and equality. For the full argument, read the Euston Manifesto on www.eustonmanifesto.org.
Friday, April 14, 2006
Has the media got it wrong over the NHS?
In the hunt for the NHS misspent millions the media blames the management or the politicians. Yet, these professional cynics are getting things wrong again in attributing blame. In fact even their solutions of giving power back to the nurses and doctors would make things worse for the NHS. It is simply ridiculous to suggest that the medical staff have the management skills needed to run an organisation which has an £87bn budget, has an economy equivalent to Austria, is the 33rst biggest economy in the world, and which employs over 1.3m people (as large as China’s armed forces).
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