I could never be comfortable on the left — there’s just too much hate there

Hugo Rifkind

Wednesday, 14th April 2010

Hugo Rifkind gives a Shared Opinion

‘Samantha is actually very unconventional,’ said David Cameron, a few months ago. ‘She went to day school.’

I first saw that the other day, quoted in an article by the Independent’s Johann Hari. I love it. I can’t think why I hadn’t come across it before. It’s not quite up there with Jacob Rees-Mogg at his best (‘I do wish you wouldn’t keep going on about my nanny. If I had a valet you’d think it was perfectly normal’), or Guy Ritchie’s voice, or the way Prince Harry’s girlfriend dresses, but still, it’s a corker of the genre. I go weak for this sort of thing. People pretending they’re not posh is almost as funny as people pretending they are.

The thing is, though, when I say ‘funny’ I mean ‘funny’. I don’t mean ‘unbearably offensive and a reason to beat them to death with a shovel’. And I suspect this means that I could never, whatever I thought politically, be comfortable on the left. Hate just isn’t a part of my politics. Disdain, contempt, dislike, sure, I can manage them. But hate, no. I don’t really see the point.

On the left, you have to hate a lot. A few months ago, I interviewed Dan Hannan, the blogging MEP. This was shortly after he’d described the NHS as ‘a 50-year mistake’ and, in return, been described as ‘a boggle-eyed, slap-headed, unpleasant, revolting, heartless, shit-brained, attention-grabbing, foetid excuse for a prick’ by the Guardian’s Charlie Brooker. ‘It’s what the left does,’ said Hannan, who is slap-headed, certainly, but seemed none of the rest. ‘They don’t think, “he’s wrong”. They think, “he’s plainly a wanker”.’

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terence patrick hewett

April 16th, 2010 12:59pm Report this comment

There is nothing mysterious or wonderful about the pronouncements of Johann Hari; he is the heir to the estates of George Gissing and Wyndam Lewis but sadly without their talent.

Joe

April 23rd, 2010 8:09pm Report this comment

It's not 'hatred' to think that the rich-poor divide is grossly unfair, and that greed and selfishness should be celebrated and encouraged. Of course there are people that fit the stereotype you allude to, but you really need to get out more, and meet some nicer people.

Rory Sutherland

May 4th, 2010 11:50pm Report this comment

The strange horror of drying clothes outdoors also seems to apply in the American South (possibly throughout the US, but I came across it in the South). I think it is a class indicator (though perhaps a race indicator, too). But the horror is every bit as great as if someone in Surrey put a car up on bricks. It feels spectacularly wasteful to sit in North Carolina with a 80-degree sea breeze while the Maytag tumble drier churns away, but the social opprobrium is so great you cannot do otherwise.

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