Paul Embery - Give Your Head A Shake

Many people, even within the Trades Union movement, may not have heard of Paul Embery. But this self-proclaimed “blue Labour” commentator is clearly looking to make sure people do hear of him. To this end, he has a book out later this week, which asserts, more or less, that what he calls the “modern left” despises working class people.

Paul Embery

Just where he is coming from can be glimpsed by considering some of his social media utterances, a useful starting point being “The millions in blue-collar, rust-belt America who were left behind by globalisation and deindustrialisation, who were targets in a culture war prosecuted by liberal elitists, and who yearned for a return to a politics of belonging & community, deserved so much better than Trump”. Yes, “liberal elitists”. False premise.

Also relevant is his taking Michelle Obama’s conciliatory “Let’s remember that tens of millions of people voted for the status quo, even when it meant supporting lies, hate, chaos, and division. We’ve got a lot of work to do to reach out to these folks in the years ahead and connect with them on what unites us” and snapping back “Translated = ‘We must try to take the white trash with us over the next four years.’” Whiff of intolerance.

As is his sneering dismissal of former PM John Major, “Is this a wind up? People who voted Remain bullied into silence? Seriously? Virtually the whole of the establishment and liberal media trained their guns on Leave voters. 'Racist', 'thick' 'gammon', 'fascist', 'Little Englanders'. Have a day off, Sir John”. The liberal media and establishment did no such thing. And none of those terms are exclusively levelled at one class of people.

But Embery does want you to read his book. And with an open mind, hence his disdain for Sabrina Huck. “‘...have done some prep on far right mobilising which will inform my critique’ … Obviously intends to read it with an open mind, then”.

He’s terribly sensitive to criticism. "Here’s another early review of my book from someone else who hasn’t read it” … “I never knew until now that Twitter was home to so many commentators endowed with the supernatural gift of being able to review a book without actually having read it”. Who’re you fighting, General?

Maybe it’s The Left again. And Centrists. “To the far-Lefties & Blairites hurling abuse my way and characterising my book as some sort of manifesto for a Fourth Reich: may I politely request that you read it first (preferably with an open mind) then we can debate any disagreements you might have in a civilised manner. OK?”

So you have to read his thoughts first. Sadly, though, that principle does not appear to universally hold: when the HuffPost published an article headlined “Policing of UK Black Lives Matter protests was ‘Institutionally Racist’”, he adopted a rather different tone.

“The report was written by a BLM activist. Nothing to see here”. Embery will hope that all those he’s told to read his book first don’t spot that one and ignore his exhortations.

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