Waiting for the Etonians by Nick Cohen

I do like reading Nick Cohen.

His latest book, Waiting for the Etonians : Reports from the Sickbed of Liberal England , opens with a stunning indictment of New Labour's failure to curb the excesses of the City of London, condemning New Labour for not being left wing enough when it came to the wealthy and powerful.

Cohen's columns also chronicle the British National Party and those opposed to it in Upper Beeching, critiques the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament for their attitude towards Iran compared to the USA, and attacks West Midlands Police for its attempted censorship of Channel Four.

He deliciously takes New Labour to task for their vile promotion of gambling and at the end muses on the irony of the most likely next prime minister, David Cameron, being an Old Etonian along with his Chancellor.

Cameron will be the first upper class prime minister since the ill fated Sir Alec Douglas Home in 1963, who lost to Harold Wilson.

His writing is lively, honest and unafraid to state controversal viewpoints.

I was surprised how much I enjoyed Waiting for the Etonians : Reports from the Sickbed of Liberal England and highly recommend it, along with Cohen's earlier What's Left (which he signed for me at the 2007 Oxford Literary Festival after he spoke alongside Christopher Hitchens), Pretty Straigh Guys and his writings in the Observer.