Nick Cohen

Nick Cohen (born 1961) is a British journalist and political commentator. Following accusations of sexual harassment, he left The Observer in 2022.

Nick Cohen in 2006

Quotes

• Former lefties can make a good living in the media by attacking their ex-comrades – I'd do it myself if the price was right.
  • "The Rebels who changed their tune to be pundits" New Statesman (12 August 2002).

• [Proposals for multiple Las Vegas-style "super casinos" in the UK were under discussion at the time] Yet, to date, it is far from clear if the casino will give money to Blackpool or Blackpool give money to the casino. ...
  It [Blackpool council] is promising to compulsorily purchase the land for the casino, which is currently occupied by the police station and law courts.
  In a sign of the times, the council will agree to demolish public buildings that once embodied law and order to clear the ground for a gambling den and then spend public money on new homes for the police and judges. It gets better. The council already has spent public money on designing the new casino and finding a developer to put it up.
• The reason why Blackpool has to pay out gets to the heart of the delusion behind New Labour's thinking. It's not the scale of the poverty that puts the casino operators off the town, but that Blackpool's poverty is not great enough. ... Blackpool, like most seaside towns, is too far from the big centres of population to provide enough poor, addicted, desperate or foolish gamblers to allow the casinos to operate seven days a week, 52 weeks a year.
  • "Take from the poor to give to the rich... that's New Labour's super-casino plan", The Observer (19 March 2006)
  • See Regional casino for the UK-related term "super casino". The proposals for a "super casinos" was scrapped in February 2008 under the new government of Gordon Brown; the Blackpool bid had been rejected in favour of Manchester. The Manchester project itself had been blocked under a House of Lords gambling order vote in March 2007.

• In an unintentionally revealing moment, Brand describes attending a trade union march against austerity. He complains that the protesters are not like Islamic State terrorists but "flaccid" and placid. He has a case. For all its many faults, the British left does not imitate Isis. It does not commit genocide and practise sexual slavery. Its "revolution", when and if it comes, will consist of boring, gradual attempts to restrain an economic system that is running amok. Russell Brand will want no part of its tedious reforms and will go off in search of bigger thrills.
  The sooner he leaves the better.
  • "Revolution by Russell Brand review – the barmy credo of a Beverly Hills Buddhist", The Observer (27 October 2014)
  • On Russell Brand's book Revolution.

About Cohen

• Seven women told The New York Times that Mr. Cohen had groped them or made other unwanted sexual advances over nearly two decades. Four insisted on anonymity, fearing professional repercussions. In each case, The [New York] Times reviewed documents or otherwise corroborated their accounts.
• Mr. Cohen's reputation was widely known in the newsroom, according to 10 former colleagues, both male and female. One former colleague said she and other female journalists had used a different entrance to a pub to avoid being groped by him. Another woman said she had avoided the bar downstairs from the newsroom after Mr. Cohen grabbed her knee during work drinks.
• Informed that seven women had come forward with sexual misconduct complaints, Mr. Cohen exclaimed, "Oh, God."
  "I assume it's stuff I was doing when I was drunk," said Mr. Cohen, a recovering alcoholic.
  • Jane Bradley "A British Reporter Had a Big #MeToo Scoop. Her Editor Killed It.", The New York Times (30 May 2023)
  • A fortnight later, Guardian News & Media, publishers of The Observer (and sister title The Guardian), apologised to several women for Cohen's behaviour and announced policy changes in the way the company deals with complaints