David Aaronovitch, who moved recently from the Independent to the Guardian/Observer, was once called Cherie Blair’s favourite columnist. A former Communist Party activist, he accuses his former comrades of being “in denial” over Iraq and of reneging on the left’s international obligations to get rid of Saddam Hussein. His columns resonate with despair at the left. In a recent column, however, he hinted at a wobble if weapons of mass destruction are not found: “I – as a supporter of the war – will never believe another thing that I am told by our government, or that of the US ever again.”
John Lloyd, a former editor of the NS and Financial Times foreign correspondent, is an old friend of Tony Blair, dating back to their days together in the Hackney Labour Party in the 1980s. Once a standard-bearer of the upmarket left, he has long been exercised by a British media world that he regards as nihilistic, intellectually moribund and unable to accept the good faith of the Prime Minister. In a recent valedictory piece in the NS, published after he had rejoined the FT, he wrote of the left’s fundamental mistake: “In opposing the invasion of Iraq, it has shown itself incapable of thinking through not only the nature of the world as it is today, but also its own claims to be the leading force in making the world better.”
Content from our partners
