Harry's Place

this year’s scab-produced New Statesman trade union supplement

Hilarious. I can’t stop laughing!

This really sums up the NS.

Solidarity is a rare commodity these days.

Ha! ‘Solidarity’, as you call it, ceased to exist in any meaningful sense with the ascendancy of the cultural Marxists in the post-WW2 era. A sort of unquenchable moral putsch was waged against the harmless traditions of duty and deference by the vanguard of the liberal elite. Henceforth, hypocrisy and the logical end of their cultural betrayal are rendered invisible to progressives of all speeds.

Yes, solidarity is a rare commodity these days, particularly from HP, which virtually never writes about industrial disputes and union news regarding the UK, unless its really about using them as a stick to beat, or an axe to grind, concerning its usual obsessions; in this case its to have a go at NS because of its editorial line on this and that, the fact that it published an interview with the leader of Hamas (shock, horror), Ken Livingstone once edited it for one issue (shock, horror), Pilger writes for it (shock, horror), and no doubt other ideological infractions. Yes, and Kampfner was nice because he puffed the Euston Manifesto, since sunk without trace.

HP should really not pretend to be particularly interested in industrial disputes, workers rights etc., because a post about them, particularly in relation to workers in the UK, is a vanishingly rare thing. Not that I blame you. HP is run by a corporate lawyer – he’s hardly going to write dispatches from the picket lines is he?

Amused/Benji, I know. Very New Labour, all in all.

Looking up a pertinent quote that sprang to mind, I was quite surprised to find it referenced in , all of places, the New Statesman! (although the same certainly applies to the Guardian)

http://www.newstatesman.com/2009/08/mps-free-observer-sunday

As the father of the late critic Philip Hope-Wallace advised: “Never work for a liberal employer, dear boy, they’ll sack you on Christmas Eve.”

Never has a truer word been spoken.

By the way, NS is owned by Labour supporting tycoon Mike Danson, who also controls LabourHome, edited by Alex Hilton. So you really should talk to Danson. One of the good things about LabourHome, of course, is it hosts some amusing video of John Prescott waving an IPhone about and talking in a rather deranged manner. Priceless.

Interestingly, or not, Tribune is also now owned by a single tycoon, Kevin McGrath.

It was not an “interview” with Hamas.
It was more like a press release.
It was quite pathetic.

pilger’s endurance is the strangest thing. i don’t get the impression that cowley – a lightweight literary type who shouldn’t really be editor of a current affairs magazine – is much to the left of obama, whereas pilger, who is a racist div, calls obama an “uncle tom”.

yet cowley/his paymasters are happy to cleanse away the union members. it would be interesting (well… not really but you get the idea) to hear pilger justify his lack of solidarity.

Never has a truer word been spoken.

Except, perhaps, these:

On account of the evil of individualism, things have come to such a pass that the highly developed social life which once flourished in a variety of prosperous institutions organically linked with each other, has been damaged and all but ruined, leaving thus virtually only individuals and the state.

What cjcjc said.
No wonder that “Amused” doesn’t see anything wrong with that.

I can comment on neither Sue Harris’ telephone manners, nor Jeremy Dear’s decision to write for the New Statesman’s trade union supplement, But I do know that the NUJ has been far from “strangely silent” over the issue of the NS.

There is a great deal of unhappiness within the union about the behaviour of NS management, and much open discussion between members at all levels about the lack of union recognition.

At the same time the union is trying to rectify the anomaly of a ’socialist’ publication refusing to recognise the rights of trade union members to organise within their workplace, and be recognised as a collective entity for the purposes of negotiation on workplace matters.

As for solidarity, the NUJ continues to defend the interests of its members at the NS.

Avicenna!- What a pompous moniker for a post about
“the ignominy of an employment tribunal”.

pilger’s endurance is the strangest thing

Not really. In HP’s view, informed by its particular hangups, and through Berman and Cohen, Pilger being published at NS is symptomatic of something sinister afoot. But its refreshing to take a commercial viewpoint rather than a purely politically ideological one. Pilger is a familiar TV face, an acclaimed international journalist, with a Teflon aspect. Indeed, even his photo on the site suggests the rugged, toned, tanned, and cheery Australian demeanor. None of the numerous attacks on him make a jot of difference, given his solid bedrock of work. Many reading his work, the non-obsessive middle readership, are not going to follow, in detail, the in and outs of every particular debate regarding Israel or even Obama. Pilger’s concerns are very broad, his profile high, his reputation secure, and his berth at NS is secure. And indeed this all very explainable – just not necessarily in the over-strained terms so often used here. Pilger describes himself as a ‘bauble’ there – he’s probably right.

Much to my surprise I got a ‘letter of the week’ in the NS back in September for an emailed rant about the latest John Pilger nonsense it had published. (’If islamists bomb London again it will all be Gordon Brown’s fault’ said the perma-tanned one; as opposed, say, to the barbarous cretins with the big backpacks.)

The writer of the letter of the week receives Corney & Barrow vouchers, it says.

Have I received my vouchers? Have I hell.

Shocked, I am, shocked.

Anybody that dull and pointless can only be Benji.

HP should really not pretend to be particularly interested in industrial disputes, workers rights etc., because a post about them, particularly in relation to workers in the UK, is a vanishingly rare thing.

We don’t post much about supermodels, Cream buns or Jack Daniels whisky either (but that doesn’t mean we are not interested in them.) If whiners like yourself want more posts about a particular thing at HP THEN FUCKING WELL WRITE AND SUBMIT THEM!

(ahem)

There is no “HP view” (eejit.)

Corney & Barrow vouchers from the NS? Talk about champagne socialism. Or should that now be champagne anti-Semitism?

Staggers has been crap since it adopted Pilgeresque values
20 year back. It is the authentic voice of the Nasty Left,
which is almost identical to the Nasty Right.

In its heyday Staggers was the intellectual backup to the
Daily Mirror or Daily Herald.
Well the Mirror’s irrelevant crap,& the Herald’s the Sun.
The only reason for the Staggers is as a rest home
for repellent journalists who would otherwise further
befoul the BBC.

The only journo of substance was Martin Bright,
who represented decent mainstream Left values.
He left before he could improve the rag.

If you want some stimulating political journalism,
read The Spectator.

Sorry, o/t but have you seen this?

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=702604&sec=england&cc=5739

Can’t see original sotry on his website though….

At the same time the union is trying to rectify the anomaly of a ’socialist’ publication refusing to recognise the rights of trade union members to organise within their workplace

Anomaly?? Oh, I love it … a serious contender for the Bertie Wooster circumlocution of the century.

British not racist:
Absolutely on the nail.

“Anomaly?? Oh, I love it … a serious contender for the Bertie Wooster circumlocution of the century.”

Yes, it’s also known as irony.

I’m an active trade unionist, but not a ‘socialist’. And I read neither the New Statesperson nor the Spectacularlyawful.

Did folks know Pilger participated in a Palestinian raid in 1970?

http://members.tripod.com/alabasters_archive/palestine.html

“There is no “HP view” (eejit.)”

Amused needs to essentialise a gestalt entity adversary for himself.

Sad sod.

Is benji mackie – whose over-the-top apologia and paean to Jon Pilger on this thread could only be surpassed in terms of nauseating contrarian bullshit were he to compose an apologia and paean for Khaled Amayreh – by any chance related to Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger’s wife and their daughter Isabella Mackie who works at the Guardian?

No, they’re no relation. Benjamin couldn’t get a job at the Guardian and started a one-man campaign about Guardian salaries, in revenge. Obviously if he’d been related, he’d be working there now.

From Zkharya’s link, Pilger approvingly quoting Israel Shahak at one of their meetings:

“Peace,” he said, rolling it around his tongue, “peace will come only when Jewish rights are no longer placed above human rights. Jewish culture has never been touched by the Enlightenment and is still ethically primitive. We never had a Martin Luther or a Calvin who said, “Wait a minute, we’ve been wrong about some basic principles for thousands of years.”

I wonder if benji can tell us if he thinks this quotation, approvingly cited by Pilger, is a legitimate criticism of Israeli policy, or if it is racist anti-Jewish libel?

Yes Tim, I recall that storm in a teapot between a jilted, little benji mackie and the Guardian, but can’t recall whether any of his criticism had been directed at, or included criticism of Alan Rusbridger, who I’m not even sure was an editor when benji began his one-man campaign.

I read neither the New Statesperson nor the Spectacularlyawful.

Does tha latter expose too many of your fantasies, dear?

Tim Allon

I can confirm that Benjamin is not related to the Rusbridger clan, but I can also confirm that Benjamin never applied for any work of any description at the Guardian, paid or unpaid, and indeed has never even set foot at the Guardian offices. Of course, criticism of Rusbridger and his hypocritical snout in the trough, is perfectly legitimate. When the paper you edit rails against unjust, stonking pay rises, and then you take one yourself, you rather expose yourself to such criticism.

Amused (pretending not to be Benjamin despite similarities in their IP address):

“I can also confirm that Benjamin never applied for any work of any description at the Guardian, paid or unpaid, and indeed has never even set foot at the Guardian offices.”

A bald denial. That’s pretty clear then isn’t it?

Georgina Henry of the Guardian begs to differ:

“In the interests of democratic transparency, shouldn’t you have explained that you were involved in a long and extremely fractious dispute with the Guardian over an internship?”

http://www.hurryupharry.org/2007/01/30/more-guardian-intern-trouble/

Now who would you believe, Benjamin Mackie’s sockpuppet or the old reader’s editor at the newspaper Benjamin says he has never had anything to do with?

It’s a tough one isn’t it?

Benjamin?

Take it up with Georgina’s Henry. Benjamin has never applied for an internship at the Guardian, nor been employed by them in any capacity.

Why is ‘amused’ referring to himself in third person?