Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Lefties at War
We've justed started a new show on 18 Doughty Street called CROSSTALK. Each week Yasmin Alibhai-Brown and I grill one person - me from the right, she from the left. The clip above is from the programme we will be showing tomorrow (Thursday) evening at 8pm. We had Nick Cohen on, who has written a book attacking the left for failing to stand up for freedom. As you'll see in this clip, I didn't need to say much! Yasmin's firey attacks on Nick were repelled with equal vigour. Believe me, it's worth tuning in for tomorrow.
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52 comments:
You are not going to change that dreadful womans mind. Ever!
Go, Yasmin! You shot him down in flames - well done that lass!
Now that book is absolutely brilliant and knocks the Paxman Loo fodder into a cocked hat . I have been quoting it for the last month. You seem to be following my reading at the moment ID next you`ll be recommending Prospect which is also superb
I just don`t know if I can bear to listen to that Yasmin idiot
YAB is one of the most evil people in Britain. You'd be better off having Gerry Adams as your co-interviewer.
Tip top! Two intellectual yet at the same moment brain dead people arguing up their own backsides. The left has never looked less idealogically equippped!!
Next week on Crosstalk: Richard Dawkins and God.
Do you have upholstered wallpaper ? I hear the old crone bounces off the walls...at least Joan Rivers thought so !
As usual on the left the unspoken question is, "Are you a true believer - one of us?" [Because if you are one of us, you cannot step out of line.]
This is why so much discussion on the left is intellectually arid and why the left is deeply uncomfortable with writers like George Orwell and Nick Cohen, who think for themselves.
Laurence Boyce said...
Next week on Crosstalk: Richard Dawkins and God.
Nice one, Laurence :)
Iain said "We had Nick Cohen on, who has written a book attacking the left for failing to stand up for freedom."
I assume he supports the rights of Palestinians to their own autonomous country within the green line.
And presumably he questions why the US lied about the threat posed by Sadam, and having removed him, why they haven't left four years after invading.
..and why is the US sabre-rattling against Iran when it knows that Israel is already armed to the teeth with nuclear and conventional weapons supplied by courtesy of the American taxpayer.
We all know why the US invaded Iraq and its nothing to do with 'freedom'. Africa is brimming with murderous despotic regimes which however are not on the neocon agenda.
Neocons are not conservatives, because it is not a conservative plank to create a bunch of lies and use them to attack a country which is neither an iminent threat nor any kind of putative strategic threat.
Hasn't this already been done by disgraced ex-editor Piers "Morgan" Moron and Amanda "Glenda Slagg" Platell?
There's no way I'd ever knowingly tune in to a programme that features YAB.
Iain,
Next time take a good book.
If Alibhai-Brown is appearing I will be turning off. One simple reason. What doesn't she like about me - the colour of my van or the colour of my skin?
Lefties? At war? You're kidding right? Just when you Tories are tearing yourselves apart you set up two hardly lefties to squabble as the Labour Party (which neither are in or much associated with AFAIK) enjoys a love in of sorts and an amazing bounce in all the polls.
The latest Osbourne lines are pitiful.
Ahh jsfecc, whoever you are, why not just come plain out with it and accuse Nick Cohen of what is obvously the most henious of crimes in your tiny little mind/world - that of actually having the temerity to be Jewish.Your post is just, but only just, not outright racist you know.I'll bet that of someone said something equivalently vile about Muslims you'd be the first one shouting islamophobia and blowing things and people up in protest.
Jsecc-
Why did the US assist at Kosova then which would have been the EU s responsibility if it were not a useless parasite sitting under America’s wing. It is because they take on the role of the world’s Police man without which it would be very much less safe for us all. I gather that pressure is growing in the US to withdraw support from the UN and so on. The UN whose chair for sustained economic development is currently held by Zimbawe. ZIMBABWE !!! What a farce
Palestinians have a right to this or that piece of land do they ? I suppose the Native Americans have a right to America. I would not normally make absurd comparisons of this sort but if you are going to compare the functioning democracy Israel with the lunatic Afghanistan then why not . Jewish science helped develop the bomb it is the countries that steal the intellectual property that are the worry and in some cases very obviously so. Not obviously to you but then it is unlikely anyone is going to listen to you on the subject of Nuclear Afghanistan The argument as to whether Palestinians should expect the West to intervene and hand over parcels of land is somewhat problematical. A sense of Palestinian Nationalism was only developing at about the time of the Zionist movement and the vast majority of Palestinians were attracted to the area by Israel’s economic vibrancy. I think Nick Coen might ask why the left are trigger happy about the US and its allies and so utterly forgiving about everyone else in what is admittedly a difficult position.
The connection between Israel and international Theocratic fascism is in any case an illusion fostered by the Lie machines working for such regimes as Saddam Hussein. In fact his Truth ministry carried the march with its slogan “ No War - Freedom for Palestine “ with infinite glee . His complaint is that the left have become so confused with self loathing that they have failed to oppose fascism and subsequently the counter revolution,. I suppose the hero of such people would be George Galloway with whom they are aligned.
Galloway knelt before the perpetrator of pronged racial extermination campaigns and said “ I salute your courage and strength.. I still meet many families who are calling their newborn sons Saddam . I want you to know that we are with you until victory until victory , until Jerusalem”
Anything that is not a democracy is automatically favoured by the Left Bathism ,Islam , Castroism.
As for Oil it has flowed happily with and without wars. This Oil theory is about as respectable as the Protocols of Zion and yet it is spouted time and time again.I can`t really be bothered to go through the whole thing but the region produces under 30% of the worlds crude and the producers have all forswroin poltical linkage since the scare in 1973 when they nearly killed their own golden goose .
One of the reasons that people love to pick on the jews is that they are an open society and it is easy to film from there. Dafur is awfully dangerous, best not bother with this ignored Arab islamic genocide besides which the Lebanon scarcely registers. In fact the entire death toll of the Jewish Palestinian fighting since 1921 is about 100,000 say a seasons worth of fighting in Dafur now well above 400000 and rising.
Perhaps he might say some of these things about the swivel eyed nits of the self congratulatory left
That was an enjoyable catfight - two lefties whose self-importance is only exceeded by their self-righteousness.
It was a little like getting Ted Heath and Teddy Taylor or Sir Richard Body in the same room on Europe.
anon 11.44 and newmania have chosen, rather than respond to legimate points, to repond with smear and hysterical rant. How contempible.
anon 11.44pm - I smell verity back again?
Why do we have to, listen, hear and watch, this tedious woman ? For heavens sake, she spouts out the same old boring rhetoric on all the BBC channels that I have to subscribe to !
The following people should get witty or piss off...
Chris Paul
That was bloody waful. YAB simply talked over Cohen, there was no engagement at all, just a shouting match.
You both need a bit of media training if this format is to work, otherwise the two of you, arch-polemisicts both, will continue to look a bit silly.
Have a look at jon stewart on crossfire -
http://www.ifilm.com/video/2652831
Jsfecc -
I have made quite a few legitimate points someof them are taken from Nick Coen`s book Whats Left which seemed appropriate some from a recent Prospect article and some from general reference. With tedious bovinity you have munched your way through a platitudinous mantra . I doubt you even know what you are saying.
I shall assume you are unable to respond and suggest you keep your wounded pride private in future.
I like Nick Cohen's book too and the irony of YAB's screeching intolerance is that she only achieves a living demonstration of his central tenet. Actually there is an analogy with the majority posters on Conservative Home. (Discuss?!)
However, surely a format like Crosstalk works under two conditions:
(*) the essential conceit of the programme is to have the rightwing spar with the left. Watching a socialist fool like YAB screaming at another socialist because he's more honest than she doesn't obey this conceit.
(*) there has to be some sort of conversation across the axis, and at least the possibility of a moral or intellectual conversion. Since YAB probably believes 'changing my mind' to be an act punishable by death, and since she has such very little mind to change in the first place, I don't predict you will see this happen.
Like, who cares what I think? But get rid of YAB. As someone else says, we have to endure too much of her on the poll-tax funded broadcasters already. She has no talent and in a post-BBC age would never have swum into public consciousness. I know 18DS is expanding its brief, but giving a platform to her merely replicates the outputs of the MSM as well as confirming, rather than challenging, a Tory's preconceptions of the left. There are plenty intelligent socialists out there who could provide political balance without the predictable tedium of that ghastly woman.
Aging leftie has mid-life crisis and starts moving rightwards with no obvious brakes.
Hitchens syndrome, it should be called perhaps?
Who's the chap sitting on the left of the clip? He's clearly out of his depth.
"amazing bounce in all the polls"
What is amazing about it? In many of them, it is within the margin of error, and many people predicted that the country would be so glad to get rid of Blair that they would forget for a couple of months how much they despised him, at least until Broon is firmly in office. It is certainly rather less than the Cameron bounce recorded by the Conservatives in late 2005 and early 2006.
I assume he supports the rights of Palestinians to their own autonomous country within the green line.
Kurds can build a functioning state - but then again they are not Arabs - Palestinians have failed to build even a semblance of law and order anywhere - Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Gaza, West Bank - they operate like gangsters
Alibi-brown??? Are you mad?
What have we done in Kosovo, Yasmin? Have you even bothered to find out?
Graeme- I really enjoyed that post. I think you are right that YAB would rather die than change her mind but more prosaically she is a professional opiner and with out sticking to a fixed perspective she has nothing to sell.
How about another programme "Righties at War"? You could feature Cameron and a typical Conservative voter, chosen at random.
Iain - your just trying to cheer us up now.
Its a shame Thatcher and Hurd didn't appear when Douglas wanted to watch Bosnian carnage on TV and do nout
Why has verity started to call herself Newmania?
What's Yasmin doing on that show anyway?
I'd like to see Carol Thatcher beat up Yasmin Loonybin-Brown.
I'd pay to see it.
If you were to broadcast that, you'd be laughing all the way to the bank.
Oh man, where do I get these brilliant ideas from?
Iain, do you pay YAB to appear on these? Nick Cohen has a valid point when he questions her ability to engage in discussion with him on the issues he raises in a book that she hasn't read.
YA-B wrapped up that goon Cohen in a bin-bag! It was most satisfying to see one of the media's Champagne Socialists tongue tied and ducking and weaving, whilst trying desperately, to cover up from the body blows that woman rained on him without mercy! She was everything he wasn't. Articulate,straightforward, self-assured, and her short, sharp perfectly timed rabbit-punches, using perfect English, did for Cohen, proving her tongue was mightier than Cohen's bumbling ramblings. Who wants to read his book now? He was totally discredited. His book must be tomorrow's fish and chip wrappings. Well done that woman!
BORING!!! Same old lunacy from both. Why not get some new faces? New opinions? These two are robots; you know what they think already. Neither one is anything other than professionally pissed off; why not get king of all bores Darcus Howe on?! Cohen is a leftie until it comes to Israel foriegn policy, then he's Zionist Neo-Con! Yazmin is that worn out record pro PC multiculturalist. Both gutless, neither has ever fought for anything in their lives. They are windbags. BORING!!!These are the people who have helped to ruin Britain over a decade. Change the record.
The debate you Brits should be having is about how you intend to save the Islamic world from the British Council. Even the IRA have given up trying to unite Ireland North and South, but the British Council is going unite us all by the expedeint of abolishing Dublin
I would like to suggest your next guest is Peter Hitchens, with you on the right and David Cameron on the left.
Tariq Ali is always a good spokesman for the left.
Yasmin is an awful old harridan, isn't she?
DK
Just a reminder. Any post with swear words in it will be deleted.
Yasmin Alibhai-Brown on the left? Do me a favour. Isn't she the one who took an honour then returned it after another black person refused one. What a chancer.
Confrontational bashes like this only entangle ideas. Leave them to the BBC. The strength of Doughty Street is the hour long programmes when an informed interviewer talks quietly to some-one with deep knowledge and experience.The speaker can make a case and real examination is possible. Exchange of opinions, with facts compressed to zero, just gets boring, especially when it's fast and furious.
Next week on Crosstalk: Richard Dawkins and God.
Shut up moron!
just pathetic, rude and disrespectful of YAB not to have read her guest's book.
Entertaining watch, mostly for Iain sitting there observing the argument. You were right, you basically just had to sit back and let them work.
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