The book extends the arguments which Cohen has been making in his Observer column over the last couple of years. Having been a fierce critic of all things New Labour - and a staunch opponent of the Afghanistan war - Cohen was a strong supporter of the Iraq war. He claims that the arguments of Noam Chomsky now dominate the liberal-left mainstream, and not just the far left fringe, leaving the left defined by its unwillingness to condemn anything which can not be blamed on the west.

There is also a broader argument in the book about whether being on "the left" now means anything. He writes that 'It isn't at all clear what it means to be on The Left at the moment. I doubt if anyone can tell you what a society significantly more left-wing than ours would look like and how its economy and government  would work. (Let alone whether a majority of its fellow citizens would want to live there).

This is a challenge which those of us on the left need to be able to answer. I have written a response - My Left - on the Comment is Free website. This argues that the democratic 'Constructive Left' tradition (the dominant, if quieter, strand of the left) remains relevant, and that we have many great causes left.