Claud Cockburn was a journalist who over the years had become disillusioned with the people in power and felt they were not doing anywhere near enough for the people they represented. He fully concurred with a previous boss who told him, “Every government will do as much harm as it can and as much good as it must”. Striking out on his own with what he called “guerrilla journalism” in a self-published newsletter called This Week was his way not of telling truth to power but telling truth to the powerless by writing articles about why the Nazi threat was serious, why the foolishness of appeasement played into the Nazi’s hand and why the Spanish Civil War was an important bulwark against the rise of fascism. All of which is brilliantly captured by his son, Patrick Cockburn, in Believe Nothing Until it is Officially Denied (Claud Cockburn and the Invention of Guerrilla Journalism). Although the book covers a relatively short period of his life it’s packed full of incident and reports from the sharp end of politics in 1930s, his chaotic love life (a reflection of the times?) and how standing firm against the rise of fascism was the only way to defeat it (as the Second World War eventually proved). Along the way we meet Jean Ross, Isherwood’s Sally Bowles who, surprise, surprise, happens to be sharper and much more politically engaged in real life than she was on the page. Unfortunately, we also meet the Cliveden Set, members of the British establishment whose backing of appeasement was more about their love of Nazis rather than their love of peace. Believe Nothing is a great book because it sheds light on the years before WW2, when the establishment were doing all it could to stay onside with Hitler and the Nazis, and because you can’t help thinking about the similarities with the current political situation. As Patrick Cockburn comments at the start of the book, “Claud would have found much familiar in the political landscapes today, with far-right nationalists in power and a war in Europe. But he would also believe that governments and media, which have together fostered or failed to prevent these serial crises, can be successfully resisted.” Totally recommended.

Believe Nothing Until It Is Officially Denied – Patrick Cockburn - publ. by Verso £30.00

Steven Long