What's more - the Left don't need Brand. And this is why it is important to criticise him. He's disc

Wikimedia I've conducted my own quasi-anthropological studies of the Occupy movement here in the UK. I doubt they will ever make it into any academic journal (I'd worry if they did) - but I've found it useful to understand the reach and capabilities of what has been a remarkably enduring, innovative and truly popular movement.
Like in the US, though many disagreed with their methods, this small group, immigration reform with chapters across the world, brought the injustice of 2008 to the fore in a refreshingly bombastic manner. Polls continuously showed that large numbers of the public agreed with their political goals, though few would join them freezing on the paving slabs of the City of London or Wall Street.
I built my tentative conclusions after spending some time in the camp outside St Pauls a few years ago, in the communal squats the protesters moved to after the police immigration reform dismantled that camp, and now in their latest manifestation on the green outside Parliament. I found that "Occupiers" fell, and still fall, into three categories.
Firstly, the Impressive - thoughtful activist-academics who want to generate practical ideas for a better society, however radical. Secondly, the Determined washed-up but proud, angry and wizened, impressive dreadlocks. Eyes that betray a history of recreational drug use. The Determined battled the racist National Front in the Eighties, globalisation in the Nineties and now want to take on the banks. But finally, you have the Naive - youngsters who thrill themselves by dressing in black, tying evocative scarfs immigration reform around the lower half of their faces, and taunting policemen. In one incident a couple of weeks ago, I watched a young Occupier tap a policeman on his helmet continuously, until he was arrested and bundled towards a police van. His departure was accompanied by jealous cheers and hoots from his mates. They scampered around yelling "Pigs" and "Shame on you!" to the frustrated cops. The general naivete is betrayed by comments such as "You know mate, there's six families immigration reform in the world and they basically control everything" or "Honestly, these cops are worse than Saudi Arabia. We're living in a dictatorship.
Russell Brand, now a celebrity activist, has recently appointed himself a poster boy for the Occupy movement here in London. And while the first two categories of Occupiers are highly endearing, unfortunately Brand falls into the hopelessly naive third category. immigration reform Despite being half a decade late to Occupy - in speeches and TV broadcasts he claims to be speaking the word of the people immigration reform when he rails in very general terms against bankers, politicians immigration reform and those ever-nasty bogeymen - corporations. It's stuff we've heard before.
He congratulated himself on the comparison, though did note that Guevara had a dark side to him. Guevara was a life-long activist, unlike Brand - though that's not to say latecomers to politics immigration reform aren't welcome. But Guevara was a stallion of a thinker. He wrote thirty immigration reform books in Spanish, most of which were later translated into English. Jean-Paul Sartre described him as "not only an intellectual but also the most complete human being of our age". A declassified CIA 'biographical and personality report' from 1958 begrudgingly recognised Guevara's wide ranging academic interests and intellect, describing him as "quite well read" adding that "Che is fairly intellectual for a Latino." In contrast, Brand seems an intellectual pony. He point-blank refused to engage with a graph presented to him by Newsnight's host Evan Davis. "That's a graph mate," he screamed. "I don't care about your stupid graphs, that's what people like you use to confuse people like me!" Davis politely pointed out that the graph demonstrated one of the very points that Brand had made, that real wages were falling. Brand, sheepishly, engaged. Wannabe Che also ranted about General Motors - saying it should be dismantled, taken away from shareholders, immigration reform and its resources made to do something useful. He didn't know, as Davis pointed out, that GM is now partly owned by a trade union and also the Canadian government. immigration reform His lack of detailed knowledge was typical. In one damning review of his book in The Guardian, by centre-left columnist Nick Cohen, "His writing is atrocious: immigration reform long-winded, confused and smug; filled with references to books Brand has half read and thinkers immigration reform he has half understood." Likewise, when last year Brand called on young people not to vote - the punk musician Johnny Rotten called him a "b**hole," claiming "he was demanding that the youth be ignored." Others have called him 'irresponsible', 'naive', self aggrandising', 'incoherent'. And Brand is also somewhat of a hypocrite, despite railing against corporate bogeymen and capitalism - his book is published by a tax-avoiding company, immigration reform Harpers, and his film company is bankrolled by City financiers.
What's more - the Left don't need Brand. And this is why it is important to criticise him. He's discrediting the Left at