Thought Experiments : The Blog

Monday, March 30, 2009

Go, Nick

You must all watch this video and then send Nick an email of congratulation. This is a national treasure.

# posted by Bryan Appleyard : 4:36 PM  

21 Comments:

  • At March 30, 2009 5:02 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    I thought he made himself look a total prat and was absurdly self-important in a way only left-wing writers can be. Urgh. Peter Hitchens handled it well.

     

  • At March 30, 2009 6:02 PM, Blogger Sean said…

    He is looking and acting more like Oliver Reid everyday.

     

  • At March 30, 2009 7:36 PM, Blogger malty said…

    The unthinkable happened, someone called a spade a spade, next year they will turn up with their lawyers, just in case.
    He would have made more impact if he had left the plonk alone, his detractors will simply claim he was pissed.

     

  • At March 30, 2009 7:53 PM, Blogger Dick Madeley said…

    Sounded to me like he was making a very Orwellian point: that all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.

     

  • At March 30, 2009 7:54 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Embarrassing

     

  • At March 30, 2009 8:27 PM, Blogger Brit said…

    Never knowingly understated.

     

  • At March 30, 2009 9:57 PM, Blogger ian russell said…

    never drink on an empty head.

     

  • At March 31, 2009 8:21 AM, Anonymous philip walling said…

    What is so great about this drunken ad hominem attack?
    He came over as an obnoxious chippy character with a personality problem.
    Absurd behaviour. Delighted he's a socialist - just as I'm delighted that 'Jackie' Smith is one.

     

  • At March 31, 2009 8:33 AM, Blogger mahlerman said…

    I'm a bit of a fan - and it hurt to watch that. Perhaps, like Clarkson, he is good on the page but less good or dreadful when he opens his gob?

     

  • At March 31, 2009 8:53 AM, Anonymous Michael said…

    Shame about the slurring. I saw Nick speak about 18 months ago where he laid into Andrew Marr and the BBC/Guardian mindset. I was a little bit shocked - I rather liked Andrew Marr, thought he was rather a civilised cove etc etc.

    Yesterday I listened to Marr's Start the Week where:

    1. Peter Singer told us to give away more of our money to the third world poor -laying into Microsoft founder Paul Allen for buying a $200m yacht, but omitting the likes of Crown Prince Abdhullah, Roman Abramovich and African kleptocrats from his critique

    2. Lord Stern came out with lots of vague claptrap about policies to limit climate change - completely unchallenged

    3. Alan Yentob, encouraged by Marr, spoke reverentially about Obama's intelligence and oratory (Demosthene's was mentioned at one stage). They acknowleged at one stage that even George Bush had to make a lot of speeches - but in the manner of comparing Real Madrid with Accrington Stanley.

    4. Susan Smith spoke of the welfare state being a 'right' in unequal socieites such as ours

    No one was challenged. A heck of a lot of vague, unsubstantiated claptrap. Then I thought - these folks actually have a lot of influence. They advise Governments and the like. I remembered good old Nick - unafraid to challenge a dangerous and cosy complacent media. God bless him.

     

  • At March 31, 2009 9:08 AM, Blogger Recusant said…

    Indeed, Michael. God bless him.

    I'd rather have Nick Cohen with a drink inside him than any of the legions of smug Jon Snows, Pollys, Monbiots, Heffers, Hastings's, etc, etc. The list is so long I could be writing it for another hour.

    Nick is of the left and I am a tradition worshipping conservative of a Burkean cum Chestertonian bent, but he does it for me.

    As my late father used to say - "What a man is like at dinner and in a trench is what counts". I would be very happy to share both with him.

     

  • At March 31, 2009 9:22 AM, Anonymous philip walling said…

    Recusant, I'm with you on Chesterton and Burke (even though he was a Whig) and I agree about Marr and all the other BBCites and Guardianistas, but I do not think Cohen did himself any favours - and just because he rants against the 'lefty establishment' doesn't make him any righter than they are.
    A man who claims to be of the 'left' is always suspect in my view because it usually masks a personality problem.

     

  • At March 31, 2009 9:28 AM, Anonymous Michael said…

    In vino veritas, Philip.

     

  • At March 31, 2009 9:40 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    He's right. Orwell would puke at the thought of Ian Jack and Jenny Abramsky, or indeed the rest of the cosy media Establishment that Cohen tears into. Imagine the fun he's have with the 'does my backside look big in this' middle class mommas who have colonised the Sunday 'qualities'.

     

  • At March 31, 2009 2:09 PM, Blogger richard said…

    There was something substantive. Cohen's point throughout was what the heck - ok, fuck - the feted ones had to do with Orwell. Which he spelled out as: what have you ever written that has truly cost you something. I didn't think anyone gave a convincing answer. For that reason I'm with Recusant and Michael (and the Start the Week example is telling and chilling, thanks).

    But also with Philip in wondering whether being 'of the left' is ever worth self-certification. It's surely a social thing, the people you'd die rather than be deemed to be associated with. That still doesn't make it right. Correct I should say. 'Right' is just as useless but has the saving grace of costing me something. And isn't that interesting.

     

  • At March 31, 2009 6:33 PM, Blogger simbn said…

    As David Gedge sang, the wine goes in and the truth comes out.

     

  • At April 01, 2009 3:21 AM, OpenID elberry said…

    Drunk as a skunk but i like:

    1) He's from Manchester;
    2) He's a grammar school boy;
    3) He gets angry in an amusing way.

     

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