SUZANNE Moore is having a bit of a strop, it seems.
The former New Statesman columnist and contributing editor used the pages of the Mail on Sunday to denounce the decision to offer Alastair Campbell the chance to guest edit the weekly magazine (not that I’m averse to using the MoS to get a point across now and again). Alastair, as you might expect, filled with pages with his favourite stuff: football (Sir Alex Ferguson), Tony Blair (talking about — shock! horror! — God) and the Labour Party (in support of).
This was all too much for Suzanne, who clearly prefers it when magazines of the Left spend all their time criticising the Labour Party.
I actually bought the Alastair Campbell issue and, apart from the football stuff, found it a decent read for the first time in years. My relationship wit the NS has been something of an on/off affair. I first started buying it on a semi-regular basis in the 1980s, but quickly tired of its pro-Charter 88 nonsense (“Hey, come all you masses of unemployed and fight for the right to have the number of elected representatives in the legislature exactly proportional to the number of votes cast. Rad!”).
Then, in the few years running up to the 1997 election, I became a proper subscriber. It was a great read in those days, speculating on what a new Labour government (its editorial policy forbade it to capitalise “new” in that context) might do or not do. It was generally supportive and positive about Tony and the party, and my favourite column (long since ditched) was the Diary of Lynton Charles MP, a fictional character trying to make his way in the parliamentary party under the tutelage of Peter Mandelson. Brilliant.
Then, once we were in government, and certainly after the 2001 election, it reverted to type, and went back down the oppositionalist road. You could almost hear the editorial sighs of relief. Supporting any government is just so establishment, don’t you find?
I finally got round to canceling my subscription a couple of years ago. But if Alastair decided this was a permanent gig, I’d certainly consider renewing it.
Me with that bloke who used to work on The Mirror
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Monday 23 March 2009 at 1:07 pm
“denunciate”
denounce?
Monday 23 March 2009 at 1:15 pm
You may be right, Serg. Duly amended.
Monday 23 March 2009 at 1:46 pm
”Hey, come all you masses of unemployed and fight for the right to have the number of elected representatives in the legislature exactly proportional to the number of votes cast. Rad!”
Tom, have you ever heard of the chartist movement? Well…
Monday 23 March 2009 at 2:07 pm
Good word, though. We should decide what it is to mean, perhaps? Maybe to NOT speak clearly? Enunciate, denunciate?
Monday 23 March 2009 at 2:35 pm
The new statesman has a problem. If you sit at the side and just talk up the party you are seen as shallow propagandists with nothing to say other than to tow the party line. Normal people wont buy you because you are not an independent commentator. If you stand on the sidelines and whine and bitch it is both more interesting and much easier to write good copy (with your background you should know this more than anyone). Basically no one likes their print media toadying to the party in power and NS have to sell copies, after all, the Bollinger wont buy itself.
Monday 23 March 2009 at 2:45 pm
There is not a lot I can say that is nice about Aleister Crowley.
What struck me about the Blair administration the most was the kind of people he surrounded himself with (present company excepted)
If ever there was a total indictment of the moral turpitude of the said administration, Campbell was it.
It’s one of the reasons I felt “The Thick of it” didn’t ring true. Peter Capaldi’s impersonation of Campbell was far too nice.
If Iraq was the nadir of the Blair years, Campbell was it’s Myrmidon in chief.
Monday 23 March 2009 at 4:12 pm
Who would have thought they’ld name a paper after a TV comedy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_Statesman
Monday 23 March 2009 at 8:19 pm
Tom,
Maybe NS started criticim the Labour Government in 2001 because that is when it started going off the rail. And then there was that illegal war
Not a bad idea Alastair Campbell being a guest editor, but as its permanent editor the NS woud go bust quicker than the RBS. Not just becuase they coudnae afford him, but fundamentally because people in general. and NS readers in particular, like to read things that are off not on message.
Why do you think your own blog is so popular? – because you don’t write what the average Labour MP would write, or indeed what the above avaerge spin doctor would
Monday 23 March 2009 at 8:25 pm
Suzanne Moore is a journalist and therefore morally inferior to almost any other human type.
Editor boss-type “Hey you”
Journalist “yep?”.
“I want some copy about state schools”.
“For or against”?
“Against. 2000 words by teatime”.
“Consider it done”.
“Sorry. Sorry. I mean for…”
“Consider it done anyway, boss”.
I thought the “Campbell” edition was v. good. Imaginative and colourful, and quite supportive of Gordon and Labour, which makes sense to sensible people.
I really like his contempt for journalists. Good judgement IMO.
Monday 23 March 2009 at 11:15 pm
Ok so the views of a Tory probably unimportant, but: I love NS, and I thought Ms Moore was completely right. For the magazine of the liberal left to turn itself over to Campbell, the progenitor of the war in Iraq, through his skills at media manipulation, was despicable. Some of us thought a lot of Tony Blair, until he lied about the reasons for going to war. Campbell, his henchman in chief, has blood on his hands.
Tuesday 24 March 2009 at 10:23 am
I agree: Normally, never buy magazines as a habit, because most articles (for newspapers especially) are free on the Internet.
This was the first time I’d bought the New Statesman (based on the appeal of having AC as guest editor), I’d certainly consider buying it again, though I’m told it’s normally not very good. Then again, I am a Labour Party member!
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