Old Socialist comments.
January 11, 2024:
In my haste to comment on Mr. Ganesh’s latest essay, I commented about the Hunger and Homelessness in Britain. I failed in my moral duty, yes Kant!, to, at the least, mention the Gaza Genocide underwritten by American weaponry, and an utterly bankrupt Political Morality; that has infected that mythical ‘Western Civilization’: that is the sine qua non of Newspapers and Websites, who publish political commentary. The European Settler State is a historical/moral toxin; the History of America is the most glaring example!
Best regards to my Readers.
It seems rather hard to forget this report by Jim Waterson of Buzz-Feed, from 2017!
Posted on 6 Apr 2017
Headline: Here’s What Happened When Jeremy Corbyn Supporters Protested Outside The New Statesman
Sub-headline: “With this kind of New Statesman who needs Murdoch?” ask protestors who took their campaign against media coverage of Corbyn to the streets.
https://www.buzzfeed.com/jimwaterson/heres-what-happened-when-jeremy-corbyn-supporters-protested
A selective yet informative selection of this report:
A group of Jeremy Corbyn supporters gathered outside the offices of the New Statesman on Thursday night to demand the left-wing magazine recants its criticisms of the Labour leader, does more to promote his agenda, and asked to be given 30 pages in the magazine’s next issue to make a pro-Corbyn case.
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The current issue of the magazine features a cover entitled “Wanted: An opposition” and features multiple articles criticising Corbyn and the current state of the Labour party, which the protestors said filled at least 30 print pages.
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Sam Weinstein, a retired union official, aged 68, told BuzzFeed News the magazine was guilty of “scabbing” on the Labour party by opposing the leader shortly before the local elections. He suggested it was part of a plan to ensure the party performed badly and to make it easier to remove Corbyn.
“We expect it from the Daily Mail – what we don’t expect is to be stabbed in the back by people who claim they’re supporters of ours,” he said. “It’s nothing but treachery.”
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“There is nobody who is unbiased in relation to Corbyn – Paul Mason has been good. The Guardian has been terrible. The Independent at times has been a bit better. Every interview you watch is absolutely biased. Who needs Murdoch if the New Statesman is going to behave like this? You would expect the Labour media would not trash the elected Labour leader.”
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The initial request for pro-Corbyn coverage may have failed. New Statesman deputy editor Helen Lewis said they would struggle to find the room to accommodate the protestors’ demand for 30 pages: “The normal flatplan is 64 pages, so it would have a pretty severe effect on the critics section. And there’s no way we would drop the crossword, the readers would go mad. Compared with that, being rude about Jeremy Corbyn is really small fry.”
https://www.buzzfeed.com/jimwaterson/heres-what-happened-when-jeremy-corbyn-supporters-protested
The above demonstrates, to say the least, a betrayal of political solidarity , or just cowardice on the part of the New Statesman and it’s deputy editor Helen Lewis.
Freddy is in top form when evaluating the oily Mr. Cameron , the reader might even call him catty! Though Cameron is never less that self-congratulatory, in his attempt at feigned modesty. He recalls the character of Flashman in Tom Brown’s School Days!
Morning Call: Cameron returns
The Foreign Secretary faces MPs for the first time since his return.
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But first, a report from David Cameron’s first appearance before MPs since he became Foreign Secretary.
Selective quotation:
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Cameron’s return from the wilderness (also known as the Cotswolds) was made possible by a prompt ennoblement to the House of Lords. He was handed some ermine and told to deal with the unfolding war between Israel and Hamas to allow, some speculate, Sunak to devote more time to winning over voters at home.
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But whatever one makes of his merit as a diplomat, Cameron is the picture of a consummate politician. His ability to evade questions is second to none. He slides past questions with a disarming charm. “If we step back and look at the big picture”; “I’m a bit torn on this”; “I don’t recall every piece of paper put in front of me”; “I’ll answer a slightly different question if I may”; “I am not a lawyer.”
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Cameron resisted answering whether Israel was breaking international law but under the persistent questioning of Kearns, who reminded him how happily he has accused other countries of war crimes in the past, the Foreign Secretary said that Israel was “de facto” occupying Gaza and that he was “worried that Israel has taken action that might be in breach of international law”. He went on to call for another humanitarian pause and threatened to upgrade the travel ban on Israeli settlers in the West Bank to a full sanction. Cameron, remember, called Gaza a “prison camp” as prime minister in 2010, and condemned Israel’s invasion of Lebanon in 2006 as “disproportionate”.
There has been a marked shift in the government’s approach since he took office. On 16 December, he wrote a joint article with Annalena Baerbock, his German counterpart, calling for a sustainable ceasefire and for Israel to kill fewer civilians.
But his belief in Britain’s ability to act on these concerns seemed minimal. When Kearns pressed Cameron on whether the UK can restrain Israeli air strikes, he could only muster: “I hope they listen to us.” For all the urbane confidence, it was not a compelling endorsement of British power abroad.
This Reader wonders what Freddie and The New Statesman will do, if Jeremy Corbyn enters as a third party candidate, in the next election? As Starmer is Tony Blair’s house pet, and a New Labour stalwart, the only real ‘Left Vote’ would be Corbyn. That is if political consistency of a kind were an imperative?
Old Socialist
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