I was originally planning to write an article about the US Federal Government shutdown, but I have said so much about previous threats of it that I think the world can cope without my viewpoint for the timebeing!
By now, everyone must have heard about the ever worsening war of words between the Miliband family and the populist tabloid, the Daily Mail. The rest of the UK, including the rest of the rightwing press, most senior politicians and the Mayor of London have sided against the Mail. I’m not sure if non-UK readers have heard about this week’s events, so I shall endeavour to enlighten you:
On Saturday, the Mail ran an article by one Geoffrey Levy, which described the Milibands’ father, the Marxist academic Ralph Miliband, as “the man who hated Britain”. It cited a diary entry written by a 17-year-old Ralph, who was a Jewish refugee fleeing from Nazi persecution at the time. It essentially bemoaned nationalism which was alleged to be burned into the mentality of the English. Quite how the journalist managed to extrapolate this admittedly rashly stated claim into “hatred” for the country when pointing out in the very next paragraph that Ralph risked life and limb defending Britain in the Royal Navy for three years remains a mystery to me. You can read the original article here.
Regardless of the tastelessness of questioning a dead war veteran’s patriotism, the matter need not have been relevant… But unfortunately the ‘journalist’ proceeded to claim that Ed Miliband is heavily influenced by his father’s Marxist and ‘anti-British’ ideology. Littered with factual inaccuracies (like the statement that Ed Miliband only defeated his brother in the Labour Party leadership election with the ‘trade union bloc vote’. Trade unions don’t have bloc votes in Labour elections!) a feeble attempt was made to frame Ed’s actions within his father’s views. That’s why, when Miliband used his Right of Reply in an article yesterday, the Daily Mail looked truly ridiculous when it not only reprinted the original article, but placed an editorial next to Miliband’s reply refusing to apologize.
Bear in mind that what follows is the official view of the Daily Mail, not the words of a journalist it passively gave a platform to:
How can Ralph Miliband’s vision be declared out of bounds for public discussion — particularly since he spent his entire life attempting to convert the impressionable young to his poisonous creed?
Indeed, his son’s own Marxist values can be seen all too clearly in his plans for state seizures of private land held by builders and for fixing energy prices by government diktat.
Oh where to begin? They gave the impression of being nasty but at least comprehending the situation until they called Ed a Marxist! For that matter, I’d dispute Marxism being described as a poisonous ideology. Indeed, as somebody who has actually bothered to read the works of Marx, I’d say that his analysis of the flaws of capitalism were broadly accurate. Some of his proposed solutions are now universally accepted: even in that bastion of free marketism the United States, universal free education and progressive income tax are both unquestioned, despite being key policies in The Communist Manifesto. Even the growth of suburbia originated as a radial Marxist idea! Indeed, had Marx been around when social democracy was at its height, I doubt he’d have advocated his naive ideas about the overthrow of capitalism and the bourgeoisie. These were only formulated when capitalism seemed impossible to reform.
But I digress yet again. The fact is, smearing a dead man is just cheap. Trying to portray all moderate Socialists as Marxists is just patronising. And above all, trying to damage a political figure by questioning their relatives’ patriotism is just weak.
However, I find the near-consensus that has emerged in favour of Miliband to be heartening, and it has gone some way to restoring my faith in the fundamental decency of some political figures. Rightwingers, leftwingers, centrists, journalists, politicians, radio presenters and even the apolitical alike have queued up to express, with varying degrees of firmness, the wish that the Daily Mail will accept that it made a mistake and apologize.
In the hyperpartisanship that has emerged in the anglo-american model of politics, it is all too easy to forget that people in rival “tribes” have feelings just as we do, and are entitled to some personal respect. By all means, let us criticize each other’s words and actions: such is only a fair price for seeking to lead or influence others. But let’s please leave the diaries of dead war heroes out of it.
Read more here.
