French leave
Posted on Wednesday 26 September, 2007
Filed Under Blogging
As the more observant of you will have noticed, I haven’t posted for a few days, as I’m enjoying a week’s break in Paris. But expect a full report when I get back, including a brief account of my run-in with the Lambertistes for all you sectariana buffs out there.
I’m currently sitting in an internet café not far from the site of the Bastille, with my imagination fired by a book on the French revolution that has formed part of my holiday reading. Both a walking tour of revolutionary sites and a day trip to Versailles are also in prospect.
And what can I say about that leftie hot one hundred list in the Telegraph? I’m naturally chuffed to come in at 93, ahead of such unknowns as Ali and Pilger. But back in the real world, the comments box is open for the nomination of notable ommissions.
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28 Responses to “French leave”
Why wasn’t Oliver Kamm in amongst the Daily Telegraph’s top 100?
With a generous definition of ‘Left’ (for example, I include trade union bureaucrats and Dave himself), I count 23 Left-wingers on the list out of 100. The rest are a mixture of Thatcherites, neo-conservatives and careerist scumbags who at the most had a social conscience when they were young.
Ironically, if it actually was a genuine list of powerful British leftwingers, Dave might still make it into the top 100, though if his current political trajectory right continues, who knows how long for?
Dave,
don’t let the sectarian cats’ paws annoy you about your listing sucess
you’d better get some better spam protection, your site is being hit pretty hard by some nasty porn spammers
enjoy Paris, and don’t forget that book shop near Notre Dame!
“Why wasn’t Oliver Kamm in amongst the Daily Telegraph’s top 100?”
He was probably too much of a posh upper class banker twit even for the torygraph to stomach.
I’ve been meaning to find a good book on the French Revolution; which one have you got?
I’ve noticed something rather common to fading, former revolutionary Lefts like Dave – an interest in the detritus of revolutions long gone.
If it doesn’t present them with a present day political problems, they can get all whimsical about those who would have been their enemies long ago – the same phenomenon sees Labour MPs call their cats ‘Vladimir’ and ‘Rosa’
So a tour round the sights of the French Revolution for Dave sounds as inappropriate as his pilgrimage, a few months ago, to the place where Trotsky was in exile in Norway. I doubt even the Girondists would have let him join. Not only do the abandon the politics, they try and steal your history as well.
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Far better than the Telegraph’s and Iain Dales lists of mainly non Lefts is Socialist Unity’s 101 list http://www.socialistunity.com/?p=757
It’s pretty comprehensive (one missing is Dreaming Neon Black – http://dreaming-neon-black.blogspot.com). I wouldn’t agree with the ranking at all but it’s accepted that such can only ever be idiosyncratic.
But I’d also much rather look forward to someone doing an international 100 Left list -focussing on those blogs that have a lot of content of interest wherever you are on the planet -
Annotated Life http://annotatedlife.blogspot.com/,
Renegade Eye http://advant.blogspot.com/
Louis Proyect http://louisproyect.wordpress.com/
do this well (all based in the USA).
Well done Dave. Not only Iain Dale’s 93rd top leftie but eighth in his leftie bloggers list. There are a few bruised egos around over both of those!
Notable omissions? Too many to mention. But using Dale’s own criteria, how about Lord Sainsbury? Or Rebekah Wade?
Or the governor of the Bank of England?
Don’t you get points for visiting Cuba?
You must also get some extra Spotty points for talking to the Lambertists – I never could stomach them. But, hey, us Pabolites and them never did exactly get on.
While you’re in Paris Dave I recommend – if it’s still there – Beaubourg’s Salle d’actualite for reading the latest stuff. The Ligue’s bookshop isn’t bad either (not far from the Bastille if I recall).
Also one of the Bar Belges if you want some decent beer. There is one next to my old gaff, by Guy Moquet Metro (a bit far from where you are), but there’s plenty of others.
Otherwise, for beer, yuk! (though draught Leffe is just about tolerable).
There’s even Lambertists in Berlin. Surely not – I mean “very left wing members of the SPD calling for a real workers’ party, like the one in France, run by, hm, the Lambertists, called, hm, the “Workers’ Party”, who are holding yet another bizarre long conference where the only speakers are PT Main Man Daniel Glucksstein and lots of German right wing union bureaucrats sometime again soon. In the meantime, here’s our national petition on something.
It was an extraordinary list. Hoon at 23, Cruddas at 43, Osler at 93 – did Brivati let Dale do the all the threes? I think I’ll check.
Whats the view of Kouchner over there now Dave?
I’ve only read that Peter Taaffe 200th anniversary cash-in, informative but poorly written, and a school text book I found in Dalston Oxfam. Happy to hear others’ recommendations.
I enjoyed Mark Steel’s Vive la revolution
I didn’t. Curse those cheese eating surrender monkeys.
Dave, you’ll be happy to know you come in at number 7 on the Socialist Unitys list (see http://www.socialistunity.com/?p=757).
I made number 33…….
I made number 33…….
I made number 33…….
I made number 33…….
I made number 33…….
I made number 33…….
You’re 16 on Andy’s list, Susan. I’m at 34 – better than I’d have expected for an irregularly-updated blog about whatever comes to mind.
Fry! You come here and stop messing with them liberal commies! Your paw needs the shotgun to go hunt some dinner!
Dave – I read the imaginatively-titled “The French Revolution” by George Rudé last time I was in Paris. Another of those late 80s things tied in to the 200th anniversary. It’s short, sharp, and good on the impact on the rest of Europe.
C’est tout.
Peter Taaffe’s been going 200 years? I never realised …
Well I made 50 something last year on ian dales but nowhere this year oh well nevermind