George Orwell once wrote a brilliant essay: 'Politics and the English Language' in which he discussed the degradation of political language, surely no where is this clearer than Purnells article in the Guardian (what is it playing at?) in which James Purnell, the former DWP secretary asserts that
"Individuals," Purnell thinks, "collapse under the weight of their autonomy. It is important, but people don't want to feel alone – they want to feel protected and they also have a concept of a good society based on compassion for others."
He is now running a project at Demos, in which he aims to 'reinvent the Left' and will even co-operate with left wing former MP's like Alan Simpson, citing the influence on Amartya Sen's recent writing on capabilities he argues that "I think they leave out the compassion we have towards strangers which is at the root of being an egalitarian."
Well, imo, its a funny sort of left wing and compassionate behaviour whose legacy will be the second Welfare Reform Act which will see discredited private training companies making millions from forced labour, which will see unemployed and disabled people coerced into cheap labour wearing 'community payback style yellow bibs and where such claimants will face much more harrassment, benefit cuts, etc.
There are too many of these types who infest the so called 'progressive think tanks like the IPPR, who degrade left wing values by dressing up neo-liberal ideas as left wing, one also notes he is basically for open borders, as is the IPPR and other Blairite think tanks. It also makes it very difficult for a genuine Left when such creatures as Purnell, Hain,McShane, etc distort and manipulate what it means to be on the Left
WE need another Orwell to expose and deconstruct this sophistry but where is this Orwell when we need him or her?
btw, i wouldn't be surprised if the Guardian journo who goes by the name of Allegra, is a friend/aquaintance of Purnells, this is hagiography not journalism!
