AND ANOTHER THING
Is the life of the Independent moving
aggressively to its close?
PAUL JOHNSON
The tortuous logic, or lack of it, which middle-class progressives bring to the scrutiny of international affairs never fails to fascinate. Even more bizarre are its occasional 'emotional spasms', to use the contemptuous phrase of Aneurin Bevan. When Yugoslavia first began to break up, a strong line by the West, recognising the newly declared nations of Croatia and Slovenia, and telling the Serbs, 'Hands off!', might have prevented bloodshed: that is why I and others urged it. At that time, however, there was not a squeak from the Left, which backed Serb-dominated Yugoslavia because it was communist, and opposed freedom for the Croats and Slovenes because they were Catholics and, by definition, fascists.
Once the 'agony' of Bosnia began, how- ever, it was a different matter. Bosnians are Muslims, and all non-Christians are in the eyes of the Left goodies unless proved oth- erwise. Moreover, Muslims tend to be non- white too, and the fact that Bosnian Mus- lims are white is a point that, in the interests of Political Correctness, can be overlooked, especially since they are being attacked by Christians. Meanwhile, for the purposes of the argument, the Serbs are guilty not merely of unprovoked aggression but of 'ethnic cleansing', and have there- fore ceased to be left-wing and have become fascists, indeed Nazis.
All this has combined to produce a leftist uproar in favour of massive military inter- vention. My old boss Kingsley Martin used to say that no one when roused by a right- eous cause was more bloodthirsty than a pacifist. I was made strikingly aware of this truth when I once took part in a television debate on South Africa with that saintly cleric Archbishop Huddleston. Among those angrily demanding war in Bosnia are Greenham women, professors of peace studies, tremulous Quaker octogenarians, atheist Anglican bishops, CND groupies and the entire stage army of the good. Oh that Bertrand Russell were still alive to lead them, spitting vitriol, eyes flashing, mane flowing, or that Canon Collins had survived to serve as regimental chaplain and ask a blessing on the assault!
No serving soldier favours what are opti- mistically called 'surgical strikes' against the Serbs or believes that doing what the Left wants would produce anything except further civilian casualties and a huge increase in refugees. However, none of that
has deterred the self-appointed C-in-C of the new International Brigade, Major-Gen- eral Andreas Whittam-Smith, who has put his newspaper, the Independent, firmly at the head of the Chattering Class Crusade. In addition to publishing ferociously belli- cose leaders, 'messages of support' from more than 2,000 readers, 'a daily report' from 'the besieged Bosnian capital' and 'a daily analysis' of the 'latest developments', the newspaper has been giving the Fighting Chatterers full scope in its letters column. As one of them put it, 'We must roll up our sleeves and get stuck in!'
'Intervention to prevent continuing brig- andage by Serbia', wrote a Labour MP, 'must be mounted, for God's sake!' Lord Ennals — a poignant voice from the Harold Wilson era — chipped in to back the paper's proposal 'enthusiastically'. So did '105 English-language teachers studying at St Pilgrim's School, Canterbury'. Last Thursday, the Independent reported that another 1,126 readers had written to join the cause. 'One strike would be very effec- tive,' it noted grimly, and 'the continued threat of air attack would make life very difficult for the Serbs'. It welcomed the possibility of a Nato attack but cautioned 'it is too early to rejoice' since the 'threat is still vague and riddled with escape routes'.
As with most of Whittam-Smith's moves, the campaign is a mixture of altruism, hum- bug and commercial calculation. The finan- cial position of Newspaper Publishing, the company he created, is parlous. The daily paper has been losing sales with ominous speed; the Sunday is now faltering also and, having lost the Observer to the Guardian, is the most vulnerable of the weekly broad- sheets. The business is said to be in urgent need of a further injection of working capi- tal of f15 million. Where is this to come from? Italy's Repubblica and Spain's El Pais, which provided cash in the past and already hold 18 per cent each of the shares, will not stump up again without direct con- trol, which would make the paper look less like the Independent, more like the Conti- nental. Whittam-Smith has at long last fol- lowed my advice and relinquished his post as chief executive to concentrate on editing the paper. But a Big Chicken to raise the money and give the firm fresh hope has yet to emerge. One possibility, according to the Observer, is for Associated Newspapers, the super-rich publishers of the Daily Mail, to buy a stake. The Observer, to be sure, is not exactly an objective source in the matter; nor is Lord Rothermere famous for staging disinterested rescues of non-Tory newspa- pers. On the other hand, he does not own a broadsheet and would welcome getting one on the cheap. It is a measure of the paper's plight that such an idea can be seriously mooted.
In the circumstances, then, Whittam- Smith doubtless calculated that his warlike 'save Sarajevo' campaign would raise sales during the summer doldrums. The last time the Left went to the trenches — only in theory of course — was during the Spanish Civil War, when it was led by the Quaker- owned News Chronicle, a long-defunct broadsheet the Independent has in many ways replaced. To be fair to the Chronicle's old readers, some backed its 'Save Madrid' campaign by enlisting, and a few actually died for their opinions. No question of that today: any risks will be undertaken exclu- sively by members of Her Majesty's regular armed forces, who are not notable for read- ing the Independent. Its stand on the Span- ish Civil War certainly did the Chronicle no harm, but I doubt whether the ploy will work a second time. No one believes inter- vention in Bosnia is needed to avert anoth- er world conflict, which was the crucial argument in 1936. My guess is that Whit- tam-Smith's war campaign will fizzle out in well-merited embarrassment. And this business of publishing lists of reader 'sup- porters' is an ominous sign. It was a notable feature of the old Daily Worker or Morning Star, or whatever it was called in its death- agony. It is now habitual in the New States- man, another publication whose troubles are mounting. It may be that the Indepen- dent needs a desperate remedy. But it is more likely to be saved by jaw-jaw than war-war.
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