Nick Cohen Nick Cohen

Solidarity for the Kurds from – er – the British left. This is is not a misprint

In these mean times a glimmer of light can pass for a dawn. Here is one heartening ray. On the international day of solidarity in defence of the Syrian Kurds, Labour MPs and activists have issued a plain request to Ed Miliband to stop being such a jerk.

They don’t quite put it like that, funnily enough. Gary Kent of Labour friends of Iraq simply says

The Labour movement has been behind the curve in getting behind the
Kurds and our grassroots plea for practical action now aims to
galvanise solidarity to avert further genocide and horrific crimes
against women by Isis.


For all the necessary diplomacy, their appeal is couched in the language of internationalism that Miliband, like so many on the Anglo-American left, needs to learn to speak again – assuming they mastered it in the first place.

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