I had the honour of chairing a debate at the ICA last night with the title What’s Left of the New Left. The panel consisted of Nick Cohen, he of What’s Left? fame, Hilary Wainwright of Red Pepper and the Transnational Institute, Martin Kettle of the Guardian and Mick Hume of The Times and Spiked, the online magazine.
I was expecting a shouting match, but it was all pretty civilised. The debate turned to Iraq pretty quickly and Mick Hume suggested that his version of left-wing politics was opposed to intervention on principle. Martin Kettle, who opposed the war in Iraq, politely suggested he was talking nonsense, but there was no fisticuffs. Hilary Wainwright was deeply impressive in outlining her belief that the New Left brought a “new kind of humanitarianism” based on “people to people diplomacy”. I expected Nick Cohen to be shouted down, but he is a good public speaker, who praised the gains made by the Left (gay rights, women’s rights, the fight against racism) before outlining his now familiar attacks on the Left for making an accommodation with radical Islam.
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