The Smack, Whitstable, 21st July 2004:
This open stage was worthy of note only for the sheer glib hideousness of some of the performers. Now, as you may have noticed, I think it’s safe to say that I am no Socialist, but I am willing to concede that Socialism has, at its basis, a simple desire to propagate equality in an industrial society. George Orwell wrote in the 1930s of the left’s alarming ability to attract cranks and noted despairingly how, as a result, the honourable ideals at the root of Socialism could never succeed or be accepted as the majority of people ended up equating “crank” and “socialist” as one and the same. (more…)