Comments on: Behold the wisdom of London’s gilded opinionistas!

By: Francis Sedgemore - Where are their votes?

Francis Sedgemore - Where are their votes? — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 00:27:38 +0000

[...] are their votes? And where is the solidarity from the British left toward their “gilded” brothers and sisters fighting for freedom and democracy in [...]

By: Francis Sedgemore

Francis Sedgemore — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 18:08:17 +0000

I have my memories of being a CPGB member during the 1980s, and a delegate to a party congress that was charged with purging (!) tankies who violated party rules and procedures. Internal documents at the time discussed such issues as the Morning Star and Straight Left (and named names), and it was known to all that Seumas Milne was business manager for Straight Left. It’s not as if they were particularly secretive.

If Milne’s Wikipedia entry has been, er, redacted to cover up his past, then I imagine this was done as part of the political makeover to which I implicitly refer above. Wikipedia entries on controversial political subjects can never be take seriously, and I have no interest whatsoever in re-editing Milne’s.

By: Paul Moloney

Paul Moloney — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 17:23:40 +0000

“I know of Milne as one of a faction of Leninists known as Straight Left, which in the 1980s resisted the Communist Party of Great Britain’s attempt to transform itself into a democratic socialist organisation”

I noticed this information has been edited out of Milne’s Wikipedia entry – to be fair, there is nothing to back it up. Does anyone have any references so it can be re-inserted?

By: mikeovswinton

mikeovswinton — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 06:12:35 +0000

Wasn’t The Leninist actually written in its entirity by an exiled hard line faction of the Turkish CP?
I actually found it more interesting, more lively and certainly better written than Straight Left. OK, make that “as readable as….”

By: Francis Sedgemore

Francis Sedgemore — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 17:58:02 +0000

At least Straight Left wasn’t as bad as “The Leninist”, which was, if I remember correctly, a broadsheet set in 4pt type, with no graphics whatsoever.

By: mikeovswinton

mikeovswinton — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 14:55:28 +0000

As someone who once tried to read a copy of “Straight Left” and failed despite the fact that it only had about 8 pages and was tabloid, the thought that a “serious” newspaper employed someone connected with it as a journalist never fails to make me laugh rather hysterically.

By: Alec

Alec — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 17:34:02 +0000

Did Milne’s daddy not black-ball Mike Rosen’s daddy?

And Campbell is an awful, dreadful, terrible woman.

By: SnoopyTheGoon

SnoopyTheGoon — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 13:27:18 +0000

I guess that putting in that post a mug shot of that excrementhead who is so high on my personal shitlist was a deliberate exercise to increase the commenting you complain about. I can tell you it (the mug) works for me anytime. Even a mention will be sufficient to bring out the worst in your humble here.

Yeah, I am aware of his pedigree. What I am not sure about is why no Londoner found it in him/her to give the creep a good hearty beating.

Are we men or mice, for crissake?

By: Gaw

Gaw — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 06:23:21 +0000

The chapter on Richard Crossman in Ralph Glasser’s ‘Gorbal’s Boy at Oxford’ dissects the type brilliantly.

By: Recovering Grauniadista

Recovering Grauniadista — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 13:40:01 +0000

“Twenty-five years is an eternity in politics.”

How long before it’s “Arise, Sir Seumas!”?