Friday 12 February 2016

Comrade Corbyn

Stephen Bush`s review of "Comrade Corbyn:a Very Unlikely Coup", was remarkably generous, describing it as "an accomplished study", and concluding that it is "difficult to see another book doing better" (The Critics:How he got that way,5th February,2016). This is hard to believe, given that the author, Rosa Prince, is the online political editor for the Telegraph. She may, as Bush says, have conducted "over a dozen interviews with the leader`s friends and opponents", but the suspicion she must have aroused from the "friends", fearing a hatchet-job, will undoubtedly have limited their responses. One wonders whether real friends would have responded, at all, to a writer with views so distant from Corbyn`s, and indeed, their own? 
      Bush does not mention whether Prince carried out much research in Corbyn`s constituency, as surely such a book would demand, but grateful constituents would hardly figure prominently in a book with such a predisposed title. Let`s face it, Prince`s purpose is to paint a distorted picture, perhaps not a full-scale demolition, but a biased view nevertheless. Rather than looking forward to a "second volume", as Bush appears to do, many of us would prefer to wait for a more impartial analysis.

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