 |
 |
Hi everyone The Guardian was wrong to use Rightwing in its headline - Rightwing historian Niall Ferguson given school curriculum role http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/may/30/niall-ferguson-school-curriculum-role The comments of Richard Wilkinson support my view. I can't see that this needs clarification. If anyone wants further explanation please email me. Max Boucher Community Support [log in to unmask] [log in to unmask] -----Original Message----- From: SEAN CREIGHTON <[log in to unmask]> To: [log in to unmask] Sent: Sat, Aug 14, 2010 9:07 pm Subject: Re: Left-right nonsense - The Spirit Level I cannot see what relevant relationship there is between right-wing think-tanks' attacks on the Spirit Level and an individual criticism of the Guardian for calling Ferguson right-wing. It's good to see robust debate and controversy entering the public realm again. By attacking The Spirit Level the right-wing think-tanks will give it more publicity, so that more of us might read it especially if up to now we have not noticed its existence! It obviously provides food for thought for Ian Duncan-Smith's think-tank and for Frank Field, given his campaigning against poverty and for more equality when he ran Child Poverty Action Group and Low Pay Unit in the 1970s. My blog contains items discussing the issue of left and right over Ferguson and the need to revisit the work of CPAG in the 1970s. Sean Blog: http://historyandsocialaction.blogspot.com ----- Original Message ----- From: Max Boucher To: [log in to unmask] Sent: Saturday, August 14, 2010 4:36 PM Subject: Left-right nonsense - The Spirit Level A few weeks ago I criticised the Guardian for describing Niall Ferguson as right-wing. Today the authors of The Spirit Level explain how their ideas are being undermined. See extracts from article below. Full article is at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/aug/14/the-spirit-level-equality-thinktanks Max Boucher Community Support ----------------------------------------------------------------------- The Spirit Level: how 'ideas wreckers' turned book into political punchbag .... Its authors, Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett, proclaimed their work a new kind of "evidence-based politics"... ... if The Spirit Level were a punchbag, the stuffing would be coming out at the seams. A posse of rightwing institutes has laid into the work with a wave of brutal attacks. Professor Wilkinson has admitted that an idea he hoped would escape the "leftwing ghetto" to transcend party politics and make Britain a happier, less-divided, more sociable, healthier and safer place has been made unpalatable for Conservatives by "wreckers" from the right. ... Wilkinson was shocked by what he believes is part of a worrying trend in political discourse, also happening in the US, where a few people, often attached to right wing institutes, have set themselves up as professional wreckers of ideas. "Do they even believe what they are saying?" he said today. "I suppose it doesn't matter if their claims are right or wrong; it is about sowing doubt in people's minds." The authors fear the attacks have scuppered any chance of removing the inequality debate "from the left wing ghetto". Wilkinson said: "It is now something for the left and we would rather have avoided that. People on the right will feel relieved knowing they don't have to treat this seriously and will be happy to know it has been rubbished."