More gems from Decentiya
"the halcyon days of early 2003".
- Robin Simcox of the Jacksonauts.
I really can't think of anything else to say about his review. I do think it's terrible, but any further comment from me would not be as damning as the phrase "the halcyon days of early 2003" and would thus dilute this unfavourable review. If you ever wondered what Oliver Kamm's id would sound like, this is it. We did the right thing in Vietnam by the way (this is on the watch list for me because I am sure it is about to take off in Decent conventional wisdom).
Simcox is clearly an idiot to watch. He's also the Scoop Jackson society's "Britain in the World Section Director", which holds out the tantalising possibility that there are other section directors responsible for Britain's extraterrestrial policy.
- Robin Simcox of the Jacksonauts.
I really can't think of anything else to say about his review. I do think it's terrible, but any further comment from me would not be as damning as the phrase "the halcyon days of early 2003" and would thus dilute this unfavourable review. If you ever wondered what Oliver Kamm's id would sound like, this is it. We did the right thing in Vietnam by the way (this is on the watch list for me because I am sure it is about to take off in Decent conventional wisdom).
Simcox is clearly an idiot to watch. He's also the Scoop Jackson society's "Britain in the World Section Director", which holds out the tantalising possibility that there are other section directors responsible for Britain's extraterrestrial policy.
posted by The Rioja Kid at 3/05/2008 05:51:00 PM
21 Comments:
You're slow on this one
The earlier part of the sentence shouldn’t be missed: "What wretched timing for Rogers then, that his book should be released at a time when American success in prosecuting the War on Terror is possibly at its highest point since ..."
Well, anyone reading Patrick Cockburn's eyewitness report from Iraq now, in the current LRB (that wretched, appeasing journal), has some evidence not to believe Robin Simcox.
The same "bad timing" remark has been thrown at Jonathan Steele’s book on Iraq. I went to hear Steele talking about these themes recently at the LSE and saw only a wise, experienced, measured journalist, who knows what he’s talking about: he’s been there and seen for himself. Very far from the "appeaser" who is lumped together (by Norman Geras) with John Pilger, Seamus Milne, and other "Guardianistas".
Where has Robin Simcox been?
http://www.henryjacksonsociety.org/member.asp?pageid=40&mid=25
Just universities and think tanks.
K
"In terms of pressing the buttons ... Rogers hits the ground running."
What's Miliband doing being published in Decentiya? Rather like membership of the Scoopies, it sought to be banned for any self-respecting Labour MP.
Victor Hugo said you can defeat armies, but you can't defeat ideas.
Miliband should think about this with respect to invaded countries. The population tends to understand the ideas of occupation and imperialism rather well.
Hang on. Wasn't the H'S'JS's Britain in the World Director the man who declared Britain was 'unquestionably the second most powerful country in the world'? And his name was Matthew something, or at least it wasn't Robin.
Matthew Jamison, and I am afraid that he is but an "Associate Fellow" in the Britain in the World section which is so ably Directed by Robin Simcox. Given the rate at which Senior Fellowships and Global Directorships are handed out by these thinktanks, an Associate Fellow sounds pretty fucking lowly to be honest. Though I note he is also the "Media Secretary" of the H'S'JS, so he might be an Alastair Campbell figure who wields influence out of proportion to his title.
So you're saying he's unquestionably the second most important figure in the "Britain in the World" department of the H'S'JS?
any self-respecting Labour MP
And how many of them are there left?
So... "closing Guantanamo Bay" = "appeasing Islamists".
And in other news, "serious foreign policy thinker" = "monumental arsehole".
Actually according to Sicox's bio, while he has spent all his time in think tanks and universities, none of this seems to have been actual research. First a BA at Leeds, then a taught masters in London - followed by a spot in the communications dept in Chatham house. This latest gig at Civitas (or spin off of) is his only research position, and that's only as an Research Assistant (lowliest of the lows).
I used to see Matthew Jamison wandering round Cambridge, braying loudly into his mobile phone about what some important Fellow had told him at the previous night's formal hall.
He has (/had) a photo album on his Facebook profile called 'People I admire', which basically boiled down to Tony Blair, Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan and H'S'J
... any self-respecting Labour MP ...
And how many of them are there left?
Quite.
And when it's populated by klingons like Caroline Flint and Pat McFadden you wonder where it might end up.
Anthony goes on about how isolated the "white working class" is, and I see the BBC have a new series out on the same theme. It's no surprise when New Labour has precisely zero interest in them.
gastro george: And when it's populated by klingons like Caroline Flint and Pat McFadden you wonder where it might end up.
Flint, a Klingon? More Borg-like I fear.
dd: Given the rate at which Senior Fellowships and Global Directorships are handed out by these thinktanks, an Associate Fellow sounds pretty fucking lowly to be honest.
So which one is in the big chair stroking the fluffy white cat?
[redpesto]
Me, on any given weekday evening, though she bites when I stroke her.
It's no surprise when New Labour has precisely zero interest in them.
Not so: it does have an interest in pandering to their resentments, it's just not interested in doing anything constructive for them.
... it does have an interest in pandering to their resentments, it's just not interested in doing anything constructive for them.
... which is a major contribution to what Anthony (probably quite rightly) describes as a "sense of siege".
Keeping in with the aims of this blog I think a Nick Cohen comment nicely fits here, in one of his rants about the middle-classes having it so hard:
The brute economic fact is that a single mother on a council estate doesn’t have to worry about fathers abandoning their children because the state will pay for them.
Yikes. That's positively Carlylean, and not in a good way.
Jesus.
Yes, and Nick also believes that the state schools are godawful - But after 10-years of Labour and billions of public money, second choices are invariably third-rate. Chris Dillow wrote about this, and I agree with him: Nick's kids are hugely advantaged - he and his partner are educated, articulate, and value education, so the children would do well in any school. And what the state pays single mums isn't generous.
And another cracking column from Rogers on Open Democracy. I particularly like the last sentence.
Guano
Sicox is obviously a chancing right wing hack - must we give him any more exposure? Please, let's move on. There are more pressing matters - like the imminent invasion of Kazgranistan.
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