Meacher dubbed "conspiracy nut" by Private Eye

[xmasdale]

The following article in the May 25th edition of Private Eye, begs so many questions that it is laughable, but not in the way the author intended. I think it is fairly typical of current liberal attitudes to the War on Terror and related issues.

One 9/11 truth campaigner, on observing the mass of SWP placards at a recent Stop the War coalition demo, remarked:

"I can't understand why so many anti-war demonstrators want to embrace Communism [sic] when it has proved such a dismal failure."

With the 9/11 Truth Campaign becoming a growing influence in the Peace Movement, we activists cannot afford to be naive about the attitudes of others who oppose the war.

LEFT IN THE LURCH

What’s happened to the left-wing revolt? You must remember it. Tony Blair provoked hundreds of thousands to embrace the left. Yet now, with anger about the war greater than in 2003, the left of the Labour Party is so feeble it can’t put up a candidate to run against Brown.

After months of squabbles over whether John McDonnell or Michael Meacher should be the man, it ended up failing to find enough MPs to back the nomination of either. Outside Westminster, the Stop the War coalition is faring no better. A movement that once marshalled great demonstrations through the streets of London has shrivelled into an irrelevance.

Perhaps the following facts can help solve the puzzle.

Michael Meacher plays the housing market with a buy-to-let property business which is a strange way for a prolier-than-thou socialist to make a living… but stranger still is his transformation into a 9/11 conspiracy nut.

In an article for the Guardian, Meacher implied that the neo-cons allowed al Qaeda to provide them with a pretext for war and asked: "Could US air security operations have been deliberately stood down on September 11?"

An intelligent leftist should be able to oppose Bush without this sort of nonsense. Meacher couldn’t and the best thing to say about him is that John McDonnell can’t abide him.

McDonnell is more interested in Irish Republican than Islamist violence. In 2003 he declared: "It’s about time we started honouring those people involved in the armed struggle. It was the bombs, bullets and sacrifice made by the likes of Bobby Sands that brought Britain to the negotiating table."

As with Meacher, anyone new to left-wing politics may have wondered why they had to honour the bombs and bullets of the IRA.

Similar questions afflicted many who joined the anti-war protests and found themselves led by an unholy alliance of the white far left, in the guise of the Socialist Worker Party, and the Islamist far Right. Since 2003, demonstrations have gone from hundreds of thousands to tens or thousands to a few thousand. The tipping point for everyone except the die-hards was the protest against the war between Hezbollah and Israel, in which the SWP persuaded gormless leftists to march under the banner "we are all Hezbollah". This is an organisation whose leader, Hasan Nasrallah, famously advise the West: "We don’t want anything from you. We just want to eliminate you".

It is a dismal comment on the state of left-wing politics that one national figure to emerge from anti-war ferment was George Galloway, who spends his days on a Cook’s tour of the word’s dictators. He saluted Saddam Hussein, Bashar al-Assad and Fidel Castro, while expressing his regret for the passing of the Soviet Union, singing the praises of Hasan Nasrallah and taking the odd break to crawl to Rula Lenska in the Big Brother house.

It wouldn’t take Sherlock Holmes to solve the mystery of the vanishing left. Blair pushed millions leftwards, but they took one look at their new leaders and ran away as fast as their legs would carry them.

- ‘Ratbiter’

[conspiracy analyst]

Everyone assumes the 'left' are the tinpot leaders that make it up.
An old assumption. Similar in vein to the idea that muslims are by their nature possible terrorists for they support islam and since we have a clash of civilisations (another neo-con fabrication) they must be dodgy.

Attacking Meachers personal existence is an old Mussolini trick. Target the messenger ignore the message and support the Official Conspiracy Theory of a man in a cave, with a beard who allegedly support Allah.

I'd rather have a Meacher questioning the official version of events than the tv show comedian who runs Private Eye. What makes him better. He lives off state subsidies in the form of taxpayers and the licence fee.

Once upon a time Private Eye did some investigative journalism. Now it just promotes the one world view. 9/11 was done by mad bad Arabs. If Hollywood style journalism wasn't so pervasive that would be a real conspiracy. Not how many are embedded but whether there can be journalism without being embedded.

Private Eye wont ask that of course.

[Mark Gobell]

Quite incredible.

Peter Cook must be rolling in is grave.

Private Eye, over the years has provided some of the most insightful, cutting edge truth that has ever been published.

Expose after expose with teeth !

That is or rather, was it's ethos.

I'm sure that a throw away sentence about Meacher doesn't define their entire editorial history.

I'm also sure that it now characterises just how far down the mainstream food chain the new alternative has become to the old alternative Private Eye.

Same old same old.

Start out as a punk and end up a dinosaur.

Meacher though, I'm entirely sure is an erstwhile principled, now useless idiot. At best.

[xmasdale]

Yes

There seem to be so few cornrs of the mainstream media where questioning the NWO received wisdom is possible. <sigh>

[GazeboflossUK]

I actually bought this issue before getting on a Bus from Newcastle going to London. The Bush and Blair front cover did catch my attention but I really should have bought a more substantial read.

I just don't see why they think it's credible to call someone a "conspiracy nut" - it was so out of the blue too....I didn't even think it was worth them even mentioning it.

Cheap shot.

Although - Meacher has let the side down - I always thought he'd not have the bottle. I agree with Eye when they talked about how utterly useless the Labour 'left' have become.

They might as well be dead.

[Bongo]

[Divex]

I have to agree with bongo on this one ....Labour were started by the fabian societyand the fabin society were started by royal charter..so it seems the left (while having good intentions im sure) have been had off since the start!


Its time to drop all the parties and STOP VOTING!!!!!!!!!!!

[flamesong]

'Response' from Private Eye

Being a regular Private Eye reader and having read this myself I sent an e-mail to the editor (below). From the curt response I received (below that) it seems doubtful that it will be published.