Hark the sound of liberal hands wringing
Tuesday 17 June 2008 at 14:57 BST
From Conor Foley on core political values…
“The centre is a comfortable political space to occupy, but it is often the extremists who define where this should be.”
I include the entire sentence lest I be accused of quoting out of context, But it is the first clause above that really matters. For “Liberal Conspiracy” the centre is indeed a very comfy spot in which to dwell. From the centre its members can cast their nets wide, cherry picking from this or that policy and position, all the while avoiding critical analysis and commitment.
So be it. It’s not a dishonourable position to take, but it is rather difficult to take its proponents seriously as political actors.
The reason why I bring up Liberal Conspiracy – the Interweb forum for those who “self-identify” as part of the UK liberal-left, yet which organises invitation-only gatherings – is that these erstwhile leftists have decided that the pro-hanging, anti-gay equality and authoritarian Tory MP David Davis is a chap worth supporting for his brave and principled stand on civil liberties. Oh yes.
Foley has called for fellow liberal conspirators to support Davis in the forthcoming by-election the rightist MP describes as a “noble endeavour”. Davis’ stunt is a piece of political melodrama staged by a man whose parliamentary colleagues regard him as vain, and who has worn a large chip on his shoulder ever since the Tory faithful decided that they would rather have one of their own as leader than a state school educated oik from south London.
Now I understand why Slavoj Žižek is so exasperated with the state of the contemporary left. The scatty Slovenian marxist has called on the left to deal with the current state-of-emergency ideology by withdrawing a little to analyse the situation properly. Instead we have the political lemmings of “Liberal Conspiracy” rushing headlong into the darkness.
Hat tip: Hakmao
Stumble it!
Tuesday 17 June 2008 at 15:04 BST
As far as I was aware “Liberal Conspiracy” hasn’t decided exactly what it is going to do, but one thing it isn’t doing is supporting Davis wholeheartedly nor ignoring him. It’s so kind of you to let Liberal Conspiracy know what it thinks though, it must be so grateful!
You should get in touch with someone about getting an “invite” to the convention though, I mean if it isn’t too much effort to look selectively no further than the surface that is ;)
Tuesday 17 June 2008 at 15:10 BST
Maybe Liberal Conspiracy has yet to agree on a “party line”, but interested readers can see for themselves what the LC movers and shakers are thinking. Personally, I think they’ve taken leave of their senses.
Tuesday 17 June 2008 at 15:15 BST
Apparently the collective noun for a group of liberals is a ‘clot’.
Tuesday 17 June 2008 at 15:18 BST
They are the cream of the English chatterati.
Tuesday 17 June 2008 at 15:19 BST
From Lee Griffin’s blog blurb:
“About Lee: Former students’ union president and intermitent blogger since the turn of the century, who’s aim is to promote objective thinking and a break from partisan politics when discussing the issues of the day”
ha ha ha. says it all there really — what a tosser.
Tuesday 17 June 2008 at 15:41 BST
“these erstwhile leftists have decided that the pro-hanging, anti-gay equality and authoritarian Tory MP David Davis is a chap worth supporting”
Have we? Oh, must’ve missed the memo that we were all to agree with each other on everything, despite having contributors from several political parties and at least two posts opposing the idea of supporting him as well. The editor of the blog publicly posting that opinion within the site is strongly split and he is himself undecided would be a fact that would get in the way of your rant though wouldn’t it ;-)
I’m slightly confused about your dislike of the event next week; the Guardian newsroom isn’t massive and spaces are limited, the open invitation to ask for a ticket on the site does make that fairly clear and that it’s open to all.
Maybe it’s not worded brilliantly, but I thought it was fairly well done when I saw the draft.
I, personally, am backing the campaign that Davis has now joined, it’s a specific, single issue campaign that has been around for a quite some time now. As such, he has resigned to force a public vote on this specific issue, backing that campaign and agreeing with him on that issue is fine by me, as long as it remains as such and is cross party—hence Labour MPs backing it are a good thing, in my opinion. He’s not a civil libertarian, he’s a Constitutionalist, and as such he backs some things
I completely do not understand your last point—we should withdraw from public discussion and give in to authoritarianism because we’ve not thought about it enough? Speak for yourself, this was what got me into political blogging, back in 2005, when it was apparent that it was going to be the big issue of the next few years at least. If we step back and ignore the issues, then we lose, and once lost, it’s hard to find things again.
Tuesday 17 June 2008 at 15:59 BST
Žižek is calling for critical analysis of the crisis facing the left, even if this means backing off temporarily from full-on activism. I think he makes a good point. This was contained in a Democracy Now! interview that I now cannot find on YouTube.
I honestly think that you and your fellow Davis supporters have misread the runes. Davis is not the devil incarnate (he is not clever enough to warrant that label), but he is no civil libertarian, and I’m astounded how many liberals and liberal-leftists are rallying to his opportunist cause.
It will all end in tears.
Tuesday 17 June 2008 at 16:03 BST
Is this a rant? I’ve been accused recently of unwarranted mellowness.
Tuesday 17 June 2008 at 18:16 BST
Francis,
“The scatty Slovenian marxist has called on the left to deal with the current state-of-emergency ideology by withdrawing a little to analyse the situation properly.”
Would you say that there is a distinct entity that could be called ‘the left’? I would consider contemporary individual and collective philosophies to be far too diverse for such action.
Respectfully,
Ben
Tuesday 17 June 2008 at 18:38 BST
Ben - To their credit, “liberal conspiracists” such as Conor Foley have identified a number of core values that define the left. I do believe there is an entity that could be called “the left”, even if it is not as distinct as it could or should be. Despite all the talk of “new” this and “new” that, I don’t think that the core issues have changed much over the years.
What we are seeing is a rise in political bullshitters attempting to appropriate labels such as “libertarian” or “socialist” as a cover for some rather unwholesome ideologies. Fascism has many faces and levels of unpleasantness.
Wednesday 18 June 2008 at 07:10 BST
I’m slightly confused about your dislike of the event next week
To quote the other Marx, please accept my resignation. I don’t want to belong to any club that will accept me as a member, and to quote someone a whole lot closer to Francis, I only join groups so that I can destroy them from within.
Thursday 19 June 2008 at 12:40 BST
Francis: good quote from me and you have summed up the Liberal Conspiracy dilemma quite well. The real world does require taking tough political choices which some would rather avoid.
The Bill is now in the Lords, where it will probably get gutted, and will then come back to the Commons where Brown will use the Parliament Act to try and ram it through. He can, rightly, say that the Lords should not be allowed to “obstruct the will of the people”. Opponents of the Bill will then work on the Labour waverers to try and turn that argument around.
They will point out that Labour did not include 42 days in its manifesto and is widely believed to have introduced the measure for party political gain. They will also point out that the Bill only passed courtesy of the DUP - whose votes are believed to have been bought by a deal.
If there is also a strong vote for DD in the by-election, that can also be used to counter Brown’s “will of the people” argument. If the vote is weak then supporters of 42 days will argue the opposite. In fact they are already doing so.
As you say, Liberals can wring their hands on this, but that is the reality. Beyond that I don’t see the by-election has any significance and I would wish the Labour and Liberal Democrat candidates well when they stand against him in the general election.
Thursday 19 June 2008 at 13:12 BST
“If there is also a strong vote for DD in the by-election, that can also be used to counter Brown’s “will of the people” argument.”
Conor - You could stand a blue-rosetted monkey in Haltemprice and Howden, and ensure its election to the Commons. Correlating people’s voting behaviour with their personal prejudices is a far from trivial exercise, especially in a by-election. If Davis’ majority increases, it will be said by some that it is no more than a mid-term, knee-jerk reaction to New Labour.
The melodramatic resignation and forced by-election is a stunt by an opportunist, right-wing, authoritarian politician of some considerable experience but relatively little intelligence. Beyond the likes of Shami Chakrabarti making positive noises about matters of principle while avoiding partisan support for Davis, civil libertarians should have nothing to do with this wretched business.
Thursday 19 June 2008 at 14:18 BST
Well I have made much the same point as Shami and Helena Kennedy. If the by-election can be used to make the case against 42 days stronger then well and good.
I find the argument that people who are also against 42 days but want to put up a candidate against DD idiotic. I am perfectly happy to extract any political capital that can be squeezed from his election victory to get 42 days thrown out.
Thursday 19 June 2008 at 23:33 BST
Spoken like a true tankie. Instead of supporting an independent (and possibly socialist) candidate standing on an actual civil liberties programme, it is better to support a rightwing authoritarian opportunist, who still supports detention without charge, as well as more CCTV surveillance, bigger and better DNA databases and so on.