A long self-promoting piece by David Edgar on how generations of ‘renegades’ have left the Left is worth a quick glance, if only to see how some privileged people can end up in a severe state of confusion.

Edgar names many renegades. Thus:

[C]ommentators Nick Cohen, David Aaronovitch and Andrew Anthony all had left-wing parents, and were involved in political campaigning around race, gender and class in the 1970s (Aaronovitch was one of Manchester University’s notorious University Challenge team, who answered "Marx", "Lenin" or "Trotsky" to every question). Although none of them has abandoned the whole progressive package, their main target is a left-liberal intelligentsia, which, as they see it, opposed the overthrow of a fascist dictator, Saddam Hussein, and is now in an unholy Faustian alliance – justified by modish, postmodern cultural relativism – with the far right

Andrew Anthony himself responds briskly here. If you can bear it, scroll down through some of the ensuing feuding in the Comments. Sarka’s comment is one of the few firmly anchored in balance and real life.

Norman Geras too has weighed in. His contribution has the great advantage of being readable and clear.

My view?

It is now established beyond any scientific doubt that if you have too great a role for ‘the state’ and try to control market mechanisms, even for altruistic reasons, things get in a bad way for everyone. Scope for intelligent debate on getting the balance right here. But if you opt for a Better More State Than More Market paradigm, you are unlikely to make much sense, or achieve lasting positive results.

Plus, if we want a reasonable but in historical terms highly unusual society in which men and women have something close to equal rights and responsibilities, everyone has to stand hard against all violent religious extremists who hate such freedoms and threaten and carry out terroristic violence against us to achieve their reactionary ends. This is non-negotiable.

Some of these extremists plot against us overseas, raising tricky moral/political/realpolitik questions of self-defence. Do we defend ourselves in the first ditch (their back yard) or the last one (our front yard) or somewhere in-between? Scope for intelligent debate and disagreement here over means, but not the principle.

As for D Edgar, who can take seriously someone who still calls the Russian Revolution "one of the most radical and progressive achievments of the 20th century"? This progressive event led progressively to countless millions of people being starved to death or murdered. Maybe he should get out of the theatre and go to the cinema more often to see some real Progress?

Edgar mentions various famous writers and others who suffered from ‘disappointment’ at the ruinous events (‘crises’) which ensued, and moved to the Right. The astonishing thing of course is not that some Leftists jumped ship in the face of all these horrors. It is that any of them stayed on it.

And are still there, advertising their new plays and sniping at those who have been more honourable and honest than they are. What a waste of time.