I adore Nick Cohen for so many reasons. He once bought me a burger and laughed uproariously at my jokes as we lunched, even though his were much funnier. He described me and Julie’s book Not In My Name as “a spirited attack” in The Observer. His Facebook status updates are always hilarious and brighten up many an afternoon.

But mostly I adore him for his courageous writing. His book What’s Left is a shudderingly great attack on the hypocrisies and other ugliness of the modern British Left. Reading it encouraged Julie and I to write Not In My Name. She once described herself and I as “like Nick Cohen, but the K-Tel version”. I wish.

He now has a new book out called Waiting For The Etonians and gave Oy Va Goy an interview.

I loved What’s Left with all my heart. How does your new book compare with it in content and theme?
Waiting for the Etonians is a collection of journalism some new some already published and updated. Unlike What’s Left it’s a very British book, about my take on what it has been like to live and write over here at the end of an extraordinary and disorientating bubble market. There are two major themes:

* How the political left allowed speculators to run riot until they brought down the roof on the rest of society.

* How the cultural left failed to rise to the challenge from radical Islam.

In essence it’s about people forgetting their best instincts and disaster following.

You enjoy your spats. I do too, particularly your ones with Johann Hari and George Monbiot. Which one have you enjoyed most?
I enjoy arguments not spats. The one thing which shocked me after What’s Left? was released was people lying about what was in the book. Unless they are on drugs or soft in the head, they must sit down and quite deliberately invent. I’m used to it now, and quickly learned that you can’t really argue with people like that. All you can do is say “no I don’t believe that black is white and two and two make five”. It becomes very tedious very quickly. I’ve enjoyed arguing with European and Australian journalists much more than with Brits. Even if they think I’m wrong, they at least attack what I believe rather than invent some fantasy. I wasn’t aware I’d had a spat with Monbiot but I’ve had so many spats I may have forgotten it.

Spats with Monbiot rule. His one with Julie shifted thousands of copies of Not In My Name. On a separate note, what is the maddest thing an antisemite has ever said to you?
That the Israel “lobby” organised the second Iraq War. Madness straight from the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, of course, but treated as sane by the London Review of Books, Independent, BBC etc, etc.

If you had to spend a month on a desert island with George Galloway or Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, which would you choose and why?
There must be a third way!

Why are people such arses, Nick?
Lots of reasons, Chas. In politics the main one is the fear of breaking with the received wisdom of those around them and being cast out of their tribe.

Well said. Waiting For The Etonians is out now.