The Lefties it's OK to love

In this week's NS, the left told us which Tories they love. But is that love reciprocated?

By Graeme Archer Published 30 September 2011 12:08

The NS has a cover story: Which Tories is it OK to love? I love my other half, and he's a Tory, but I don't think that's the point of the article. And despite all those pop songs that urge "you gotta love you-self, bay-bee", I don't count either. I shall read the views of the Left-of-centre Great And Good with interest.

Anyway as an act of symmetry, because I love symmetry, I thought I'd return the favour. Which people of the Left do Tories love?

I lack the magazine's institutional reach, so my own "research" didn't involve ringing round the Establishment. Thank God for Twitter, eh! Below are the responses from random twittering Tories, along with my own choices, which are the top three.

George Orwell. Obvious really, but it's not only his prescient warning about totalitarianism that make me a fan. I go back to his essay on politics and the English language -once a month at least, and shudder anew each time I read his instructions about clarity, because despite my best efforts I continue to break them. An essential read for anyone who wants to communicate well, or to deconstruct the communications of those who prefer obfuscation (I've just broken one of his rules). Besides, which Tory doesn't vibrate with recognition at this:

Our civilization is decadent and our language -- so the argument runs -- must inevitably share in the general collapse.

When I read that, I'm like that scene in When Harry Met Sally. Yes that one. Yes that's a metaphor. Almost.

Frank Field. Also obvious, I know, but equally deserved. From his fight against Militant in the 80s (in a profile of him in the Independent in 1993, he said his nightmare is "sitting in a smoke-filled room confronted by rows of staring eyes and faces contorted by hatred") to his common-sense advocacy of welfare reform, Field is one of those politicians whose reach extends beyond his actual words: he gives permission for debates to occur, which the elite would often prefer to leave undiscussed. In this sense, he's a gatekeeper: if Frank Field thinks it's acceptable to discuss the human implications of social security policy, then it's OK for the rest of us to air our views too.

Tom Harris. Like Field, Harris refuses to parrot the banalities of the age, which are nearly all to do with a horror of expressing judgement about lifestyles. For this sin, his party has previously overlooked one of its most skilled communicators: if there were any sense in the political ordering, Harris would already be leader of the Scottish Labour party, and not only a candidate for that position. (I only hope that having a Tory declare his political love doesn't do him any harm.) Sometimes it's useful to ask yourself a question: which political opponent would I least like to stand against in an election? Harris is at the top of my list, because he's honest, good-humoured, and kind. One of the good guys.

Here are some responses from Tory Twitterers, one or two of which might surprise you (they did me):

@torypride nominated John Cryer and Gisela Stuart, for their work on the European Referendum Campaign. @botzarelli suggested Dennis Skinner: "disagree with almost everything but he's uncompromising and takes role of MP seriously". I agree. Skinner deserves recognition for his unwavering commitment to the centrality of class as a predictor of outcome, a legitimate hypothesis to which we Conservatives have never quite been able to provide a proper response (there is occasionally a downside to resisting ideology). This thought reminds me of the admiration I have for Nick Cohen, who writes often about class, the forgotten discriminant, as well as tackling head-on both the horrors of clerical fascism and the hypocrisy of those who defend it.

@blondpidge suggested Tony Benn, "because he's a man of great principle". I'm aware of this widespread feeling about Mr Benn. Since we're writing about love, I'll admit only that I share neither the fascination nor the adulation. I prefer him to Caroline Lucas, is about as strong as I'd put it.

Since it's good to learn something new every day, I was pleased to read about Sir Roger Douglas, nominated by @Stuart_Barrow, who also reminded me of how much we owe Chris Smith. As Stuart puts it, we owe Lord Smith a lot for taking a stand and coming out "decades before some on our side grew a spine".

Finally, and I wonder if this will please him, big Twitter Tory-love goes out to John Prescott, from @jwgsharp, who writes that despite disagreeing with the politics, Prescott's "background, strong beliefs", and the fact that he "sent his kids to the school allocated to them. No banging on about Comps and sending to selective or private school", all impress him.

Reading the list again, there's something obvious to see, I think. Regardless of our affiliation, we have attraction to people who articulate the truth as they see it, as clearly as they can, and who hold fast to their principles regardless of the vagaries of political fashion, or how unpopular this leaves them in the meantime.

They are also largely politicians who don't learn how to speak in an inhuman manner, because they're so sure of their principles that they're immune to the fear of "gaffes" (stupid, stupid word) that afflict the less-certain or more career-minded.

Tony Blair, by the way, wasn't suggested by anyone.

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58 comments

Wed, 2012-07-04 16:43 — brouilleur (not verified)

Comment brouiller les ondes gsm des telephones portables... Il suffit de consulter les nouveautes 2012 de brouilleur gsm sur la page actualites de brouilleur de portable gsm

Fri, 2011-09-30 21:39 — Art Li (not verified)

Concur about Field.

Sat, 2011-12-10 21:35 — Benedict (not verified)

It's Christopher Montgomery all over again. Right-wing blogger proves to be phenomenonally unproductive,

Fri, 2011-09-30 22:43 — oh dear (not verified)

You claim admiration for Nick Cohen, but can't bring yourself to say anything more positive about Tony Benn than you "prefer him to Caroline Lucas". Take your head out from your arse, immediately. Idiot.

Tue, 2011-12-06 01:08 — Fergus Pickering (not verified)

Ruth Rendell is my favourite lefty.

Sun, 2011-12-04 13:33 — Call me Terry

Hi guys,

Iraqi fairytales is very funny but don't forgot New Labour was about Eduction Education Education

Mon, 2011-11-21 19:39 — Yakoub (not verified)

I'm a Green. My fave lefties are Jeremy Corbyn and the Beast of Bolsover. If the Labour Party were packed with characters of this calibre, instead of the wannabe Tories that make up the current shadow front bench, I'd vote for 'em.

Sun, 2011-10-09 18:16 — Anon (not verified)

Clement Attlee...I see someone has already mentioned Aneurin "Nye" Bevan.

Sat, 2011-10-01 11:19 — Mr. Divine (not verified)

Mr. Divine

Sat, 2011-10-01 12:53 — john woods (not verified)

To: Representing the Mambo:

I was going to write a riposte to your idiotic and unhistorical earlier post, but John Reid got there before me.

I'd have spell checked mine though.

Wed, 2011-10-05 17:40 — graf (not verified)

Tony Blair has no place in a discussion about lefties.

Tue, 2011-10-04 16:27 — Sam Gisoad (not verified)

Roy Jenkins
David Owen
Chris Smith seconded, though in my case primarily for making museums free.

Wed, 2011-10-12 13:36 — John P Reid (not verified)

representing the mambo, Labour weren't ahead of the tories just before the falklands the Liberal/SDP were,
As for the falklands taking votes from laobur that came back from us from the toires at the '87 election, the Tory vote actually went up 800,000 from the 83' election to the '87 one, the reason the laobur vote went up, was longtime unemplyment up North had started to seriously kick in by the mid 80's and the Laobur vote actually went down in London on the 87' eleciton from the 83' one, Yes the tory press did crucify Tony benn ,but the press backed the Tories in the 2001- 2010 elections (except the sun backing labour in 2001 and no one in 2005)and the tories still didn't win those eelctions, so saying that tony been lost laobur millions of votes due to the tory press, not his policies is factually wrong,

kinnock was elected by union blok vote AFTER teh 83' election, had Healey been elader at that eelction we would have done better,as for Kinnock trying to woo the press, he did take alobur away form things that were unpopular from tabloid readers like buying back the council houses, bringing back the closed shop, but aprat from trying to appeal to the Evening standard ,I can't think of a paper he tried to appeal too, he even refused to write fro the Sun ,when they offered,even though Livingstone did,
I assume your last article about getting rid of militant resulted in laobur winiing n 1997 and that laobur government wasn't any good was said ironically, well i liked that governemnt,and 13.6million people voted for it.
i don't think bbushes popularity gong up after 911 or Afghanistan was war mongering ,he didn't plan 911, and Kinnock he was that bloke who increased labours vote from 8.3million to 1.4 million wasn't it?

Wed, 2011-12-07 15:30 — Jeff Bunga

Tony Benn looks great with his pipe!

Sat, 2011-10-01 15:15 — A meadows (not verified)

I couldn't be bothered

Mon, 2011-12-05 02:50 — Chintoo

@ Leftwing Weak
The Prescott joke is funny.

@Call me Terry, or should I say Toni?
As we are finding out Education is not everything.

Fri, 2011-09-30 12:32 — Marcus (not verified)

How about Kinnock?

He undoubtedly saved the nation and the Labour Party by failing to win the 87 election.

Fri, 2011-09-30 12:35 — Dave C (not verified)

My vote's for James Chuter Ede.

Sat, 2011-12-03 16:00 — Chir0n

It's quite difficult to love any of them isn't it? Whatever the colour of their politics. Tolerate, perhaps. But love? These are politicians we're talking about, a subspecies for whom the collective noun is "debacle" as in "a debacle of politicians".

Having said that, your failure to see the quality of Tony Benn tells me everything I need to know.

Fri, 2011-09-30 12:52 — Archbishop Cranmer (not verified)

It's interesting to observe that the most prominent (Field and Harris) are committed Christians whose faith informs their politics. But you omitted Andrew (Lord) Adonis, who sufficiently grasped the importance of selective education that he ensured the retention of the principle in his specialist academies (which Gove has since abolished).

Fri, 2011-09-30 12:45 — mcanthony (not verified)

Field left wing? Anti-choice, often dogmatically religious. He's no Orwell, and standing up to Militant was a far harder choice for Kinnock than Field.

Left-wing contrairians - Marshall Andrews, Graham
Greene, also Catholic but never dogmatically so.

My personal choice - Lula. Elected on a programme of addressing inequality and delivered without the need to block opposition Chavez style.

Fri, 2011-09-30 13:01 — foowzkaa

The Hitch.

Fri, 2011-09-30 13:48 — john woods (not verified)

I have always thought Benn was the greatest thing to happen to British politics in the post war peiod, as he was almost single handedly responsible for the Thatcher victories of 83 and 87

Fri, 2011-09-30 14:08 — representingthemambo (not verified)

With all due respect Frank Field isn't on the left. His views on social questions are thoroughly nasty. And flawed the Miltant may have been, I'd take them over him any day.

Tony Benn wasn't responsible for the Tory wins in 83 and 87. For that, you can blame the Falklands, the rabid right wing press, and the fact that Neil Kinnock was more interested in driving out the socialists in the labour party than fighting the conservatives. So I suppose he should be the favourite "leftie" of the right. As he made their life so easy.

Thu, 2012-01-19 14:44 — Jen (not verified)

So that's the two interchangeable centre-right parties compared.

Now another pairing - this time let's do it based on parties that don't overwhelmingly agree with one another: BNP figures that Liberals think it's OK to love, and vice versa.

I suspect those lists will be a lot shorter!

Tue, 2011-10-04 21:09 — john woods (not verified)

Representing the mambo:

I am not a memeber of Labour, mainstream or otherwise: voted UKIP last time

Sat, 2011-11-12 16:53 — shufflebox (not verified)

Chris Mullins? His diaries were enjoyable...

Michael Foot is another brilliant human being in my opinion, better essayist than Orwell imo, much less pompous...

Polly Toynbee, she keeps saying very similar things, keeps getting loads of abuse, and keeps saying them regardless - I kind of like her for not hedging her bets as much as everyone else seems to.

I also think Brendan Barber deserves a certain amount of respect, seems like a nice sensible lefty.

Does John Gray count as a lefty? Probably not.

Archbish Rowan Williams?

Sun, 2011-10-02 00:07 — Dickie1

Aneurin "Nye" Bevan

Fri, 2011-09-30 15:29 — Robert Taggart

Benn. Tony. - Entertaining oxymoron.
Field. Frank. Frank by name...
Foot. Michael. - a godsend to Maggie.
Sedgemore. Brian. - Free talking - 'stepford wives'.
Skinner. Dennis. Lovable loony.

Sun, 2011-10-02 04:35 — Anthony Molyneux (not verified)

Left-wingers i love: Any serious ones. For example:

1. Joseph Stalin
2. Maximilien Robespierre
3. Vladimir Lenin
4. Mao Tse Tung
5. Fidel Castro Ruz

"Left-wingers" i despise: Any of the innumerable assorted liberal scoundrels so beloved of the likes of the BBC, the Guardian, and the NS, who claim to be on the Left though whose objective political position is barely distinguishable from Norman Tebbit's. For example:

1. Frank Field
2. David Aaronovitch
3. Richard Curtis and his loveable Comic Relief gang of caring multi-millionaires
4. Tony Adolf Blair
5. Baron Neil Kinnock - in fact, pretty much the entire membership of the Labour Party (with a handful of honourable and increasingly out-of-place exceptions)

Sun, 2011-10-02 05:39 — John P Reid (not verified)

antony moleuax, You hate all of us in labour, oh well , thats you off my winterval card list.

Fri, 2011-09-30 16:09 — Alex Baldwin (not verified)

test

Mon, 2011-10-03 17:40 — representingthemambo (not verified)

Hi John Woods

Thanks for that response. Glad you enjoy being in the labour mainstream so much. Very cosy with the establishment isn't it?

Fri, 2011-09-30 16:10 — Alex Baldwin (not verified)

Are you not taking that sentence from Orwell out of context?

(having to put this comment through bit-by-bit to see what makes it through the weird NS-filter)

Fri, 2011-09-30 16:11 — Alex Baldwin (not verified)

It appears NS has an "anti-Orwell" filter that won't let me quote the relevant passage. The full text is here:

http://www.orwell.ru/library/essays/politics/english/e_polit

Mon, 2011-10-03 17:52 — representingthemambo (not verified)

Hi John P Reid
Interesting response, thanks. Think you may have missed my point though.
I didn't say Kinnock was leader in 83. I was listing the reasons why Labour floundered so much in the 80s. He was one of them. And what year was he elected? 1983......
Anyway. You say that when he got rid of the Trots the labour vote went up 1.5 million. I'm sorry I don't see a causal relationship there. The huge surge in the vote in 83 had rather more to do with The Falklands than the presence of "Trots." Labour was ahead in the polls prior to the war. It's called rallying to the flag I think, wars are often good for the government of the day. Remember George W Bush's poll ratings just after 9/11 and the start of the Afghan invasion?

Tony Benn, bless his cotton socks, got slaughtered in the right-wing press because they identified someone who posed a threat to them and their world. I can understand why they did it, but you doing so too is just daft.

Kinnock spent most of his leadership trying to placate the right-wing press, and where did it get him?
Oh but of course, I nearly forgot we got a labour goverment in 1997. So all the expulsions and right-wing policy shifts were worth it.

As it all turned out so well.

Fri, 2011-09-30 16:41 — swatantra

I'm afraid its impossible to 'love' the sanctimonious Benn. And Skinner is even worse. Perhaps maybe Foot, but only on a badnewsday. But my respect goes to the 'Morning Star' team anonymous and tireless day in and day out whodo a grand job with precious little thanks. They are the true heros of The Left.

Sun, 2012-03-18 14:43 — Will Hinch (not verified)

check out my blog for some irreverent current affairs waffle
http://hinchysdailydose.blogspot.co.uk/

Sat, 2011-12-10 17:15 — Reginald-Fah-fah

Ed Balls is the only Lefty it's OK to love. Ed balls is great and entertaining.

Labour choose the wrong Ed to be their leader. You have no choice but to give Ed Balls respect and sit up & listen.

Sun, 2011-10-02 11:26 — Anthony Molyneux (not verified)

John P Reid:

Ha ha! Very good.

Fri, 2011-09-30 17:52 — Suzanne (not verified)

This man is very good at disguising some very unsavoury views with pleseant language and well placed 'compliments'.
Love is a strong word but I dislike Ken Clarke a bit less than other Tories for obvious reasons. Possibly throw Heseltine in there as well. The pragmatic one nation Tories are easier to stomach.
People like Simon Heffer area a godsend for the left though. He's a great advert for the left

Fri, 2011-09-30 18:26 — Graeme Archer (not verified)

Alex Baldwin, yes I am, but that neither prevents my sympathetic shudder when I read those words, nor my desire to read the whole essay, nor my hope that others do too!

Fri, 2011-09-30 18:24 — Graeme Archer (not verified)

I know I'm going to regret this, Suzanne, but which are my "unsavoury views"? And how are my views disguised in this piece?

Wed, 2011-10-05 09:47 — representingthemambo (not verified)

John Woods

I apologise

I'm not surprised though.

Tue, 2011-10-04 00:05 — Ivan Miletitch

I go , unashamedly , for Tony Blair... A guy who understood that to implement ANY policies, Labopur had to get elected to begin with...& he managed it THREE consecutive times!

Fri, 2011-09-30 19:37 — Livers (not verified)

I find I warm to Tories when they have left office and are honest. My example would be Michael Portillo whom I really enjoy both on the Moral Maze and The Politics Show thing after QT.

Lefties to love? I still love Dame Shirley Williams.

Tue, 2011-10-04 00:35 — Anthony Molyneux (not verified)

Ivan Miletich:

You are either:

a) Completely insane
b) Completely crooked
c) Tony Blair
d) All of the above

Your use of the word "guy", for instance, is particularly suspect.

You are Tony Blair aren't you?

Fri, 2011-09-30 19:39 — John P Reid (not verified)

representing the mambo, Kinnock wasn't leader in '83, and when he got rid of the trots in 87 labours vote went up 1.5million, AS fgor the falklnands, Even if that increased the tory vote by 1 million, it was the fact the labour vote fell 3.5 million in '83 that meant the tories won A landslide, and Benn introduced things to the 83 and 87 maniferstoes that even foot andKinnock didn't agree with, like getting rid of 'riot' police or nationalising the 25 biggest industries.