Liam redux

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Paxman’s class hatred slips through

A principal difference between Newsnight presenter Jeremy Paxman and Clare Solomon is that, to my knowledge, Clare has never spent a weekend as a guest of Elizabeth and Philip Windsor. Paxman on the other hand has written of his discomfort at having his underpants unpacked by a royal servant. Another difference is that no one…

Liam
2–3 minutes

A principal difference between Newsnight presenter Jeremy Paxman and Clare Solomon is that, to my knowledge, Clare has never spent a weekend as a guest of Elizabeth and Philip Windsor. Paxman on the other hand has written of his discomfort at having his underpants unpacked by a royal servant. Another difference is that no one has ever voted for Paxman to sound off at enormous expense while Clare has been elected as President of the University of London Union.

Paxman is a bona fide member of the British Establishment. and last night he thought it his duty to take to task a representative of the militant student movement that took to the streets. He hadn’t even bothered to brief himself before the interview asking Clare “are you a student?”, “where?” and feigning surprise that a union officer might be on a paid sabbatical. He was dripping contempt from the start.

At two and a half minutes into this clip his tone and body language become immensely aggressive. If someone started talking to you like that in a pub you’d be calculating whether to kick him in the nuts and do a runner or edge towards the door and do a runner. He leans forward with lots of intimidatory finger wagging and drones on about the side issue of a couple of broken windows and Clare’s presence in the building. She did very well refusing to be browbeaten by this display of theatrical indignation. But beneath the indignation Paxman’s contempt for the militant students shone through. His class don’t like politics being done on the streets.

Paxman is likely to bump into current NUS “leader” Aaron Porter at some future event in a royal holiday home. Sporting a poppy – on his jumper – to signify “hey, Jeremy I’m one of your lot” he spent most of energy denouncing his own members. A young Woolas in waiting Clare correctly held him to to commitments that he had previously made. That’s the united front in action.

Anyway get used to it Paxman. Yesterday’s demo was the harbinger of a big movement. Didn’t Trotsky say something about students being the light cavalry of the revolution? A new generation has learned to hate the Tories and it has taken six months.

Clare Solomon bests Paxman

17 responses to “Paxman’s class hatred slips through”

  1. Phil Avatar
    Phil

    I was particularly struck by Paxman’s genuine outrage that they weren’t able to discuss the cuts in a calm and civilised manner because they had to talk about the Limits of Protest instead. The voice of elite politics.

    (On the other hand, I do think Claire should have worked out some kind of answer to the question of why she personally on her own two legs went into the building – it was getting a bit Derek Lewis by the end.)

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  2. Phil Avatar
    Phil

    Sorry, I mean Clare. Always getting that wrong.

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  3. Doug Avatar
    Doug

    Paxman’s a nasty little shit with a completely unwarranted high opinion of himself.

    ‘You want to reserve another lamp post? Certainly ,sir’

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  4. Mike Avatar
    Mike

    Another ex-Communist turned blue. Oh well.

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  5. bristolred Avatar
    bristolred

    Truly disgusting performance by Paxman. What a scumbag.

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  6. Jason Avatar
    Jason

    Paxman of course was aggressive, of course doesn’t go beyond the linits of bourgeois journalism. Clare Solomon is right to say that the government’s attacks are appalling, but we should absolutely defend the right of students and others to occupy administraion buildings, giovernment buildings and rather than dodge that question we should absolutely defend the right of students to occupy!

    We should be for large militant demonstrations, peaceful if possible but ready to take detemrined action to achive our ends, including breaking through police lines, organised self-defence and decalring that these streets are our streets, these building are our buildings and to build a massive anti-cuts movement to overthrow this despicable Tory-Liberal Con-Dem government.

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  7. Duncan Chapel Avatar
    Duncan Chapel

    Clare was excellent. She was totally right to skip the question about being in the building: it was trap where Aaron would have been invited to condemn her. He was a fool to take Paxman’s invite to disagree with her, and she was much better at staying on the topic.

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  8. alf Avatar
    alf

    Congratulations to Clare and the growing resistance.
    Question Time last night was just as bad. The Establishment brought out to condemn students, ignoring the violence of unemployment and poverty to moralise about the reaction to the attacks.

    We even had the Labour spokesperson ignorantly calling it irresponsible acts by a small group of anarchists and Trots, as though we can rely on the reformists to bring about change through Parliament.

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  9. prianikoff Avatar
    prianikoff

    Paxman is becoming the “thinking man’s” reactionary these days.
    The up-market equivalent of John Gaunt, who is just a little up-market of Richard Littlejohn.

    I watched his programme on the War Poets last night.
    It looked at Wilfred Owen & Siegfried Sassoon, who influenced his poetry.
    It started off well enough.
    Then Paxo managed to twist the whole thing around into a liberal justification for imperialist war.

    First, by quoting a letter Owen wrote to his mother, after he’d returned to the Front following treatment for shell shock.
    The letter made him look like “Action Man”, storming German lines, shooting a Hun and helping an injured Tommy.
    Presumably it was written under military censorship, after he’d become indentified as a dangerously anti-war element, like Sassoon was.
    Which raises the question of whether the army high command were massaging his image.

    Secondly, by interviewing an Iraq war veteran who liked Owen because he was “blunt” and realistic about War. Thus neatly sidestepping Owen’s message:
    “Dulce et Decorum Est Pro Patria Mori” is an old lie.

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  10. Steve Avatar
    Steve

    “A new generation has learned to hate the Tories and it has taken six months”

    I think the liberals are taking most of the flak for their patent lies during the election. Let us hope this hatred of the Lib Dems lasts and that the students are not attempting to reclaim the party so to speak.

    Clare is fantastic.

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  11. Jason Avatar
    Jason

    I agree that these student protests have been fantastic and we can all learn from them.

    I think however on Duncan’s point we should not avoid the question of whether an occuaption is the right tactic or not- occupations are a very powerful tactic and signal taking the struggle to another level.

    The 50 000 mobilisation was very good but the reason the establishment are running scared and the media are obsessively condemening the students is the occupation and the prospect of copycat protests up and down the country.

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  12. Adamski Avatar
    Adamski

    Could have just said ‘Paxo, I was wondering if you could tell viewers how much you earn?’ and then commented that his salary was similar to most people’s bosses and also asked him about if he crossed the picket line during the strike…

    Could have also commented ‘Paxo, I notice that you give me a hard time, but you handled Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, with Kid Gloves during the run up to Iraq – Is this journalism?’

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  13. PhilW Avatar
    PhilW

    I agree that Clare handled it really well. She refused to get drawn into a discussion about the merits and demerits of the occupation, while at the same time suggesting that the fully supported it (and indeed saying she supported further occupations, as the last word). While Paxman was banging on about “the violence”, she was making political points about the impacts of the cuts, the NUS leadership’s cowardice and basically had the first five minutes to herself. Her approach also meant that the others were forced to discuss the cuts and fees rises, rather than the limits to protest.

    I don’t think it would have helped to respond by returning Paxman’s aggression. I’m not sure how he would have responded, but I suspect has has the ability to resume control of the interview if attacked in that way, and to look “reasonable” in the process. Clare Solomon’s approach meant that he was unable to do that. Don’t forget that he basically had two allies with him in the studio.

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  14. bill j Avatar
    bill j

    I agree with Jason, I don’t see the point of running around the point whether or not we support occupations. We do support occupations. I also don’t think the formulation “we do not condone violence” is useful. There wasn’t any violence. There were a few broken windows. And some sorts of violence, i.e. defensive violence we absolutely do condone.

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  15. Adamski Avatar
    Adamski

    Her debate on the Jeremy Vine radio show was better.

    Back on Paxo, I did read in the Guardian that he apparently doesn’t treat his servants very well…
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/feb/12/5

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  16. Jason Avatar
    Jason

    Clare Solomon’s main points were good- condemning the violence of the government not the protestors.

    I just think given the vilification it is important now to defend the occupation, argue for dropping all charges, for the NUS to support the students undertaking protest not condemn them like Aaron Porter. Clare is obviously on the right side here but she could have been clearer on the occupation- however live interviews are difficult and overall she did well.

    It is important to take up this case in the unions and build on the excellent start the students gave to the fightback.

    I thought the campaigns officer from Manchester Uni did quite well http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oc7IoeJFS60

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  17. Direct Action & Democracy « Decline of the Logos

    […] echoing through the radical Left right now, one which can be clearly see in the video to which this blog post refers. It concerns the relationship between direct action and the democratic process, and the disavowal […]

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