The Tories' lasting legacy - more reds under the bed than ever
Richard Ingrams Sunday January 27, 2002 The Observer
Those of us old enough to remember the Sixties and Seventies will have noted a familiar ring about recent press articles detailing the new menace of the hard Left - the tightly knit group of politically motivated men, as Harold Wilson famously described them, seeking to overthrow our democratic way of life.
Such alarmist features, often compiled with the help of MI5, will focus on trade union activists but may be opened out to include all manner of left wing radicals like Ken Loach, Jeremy Hardy, or John Pilger.
Today's message, which may sooner or later be taken up by Mr Blair and his colleagues, is that, despite the end of the Cold War, Marxism is alive and kicking, threatening with strikes and other subversive activities the enlightened reforms that the Government seeks to promote. Just as terrorism is thought to be a mysterious virus coming from outer space with no connection to political injustice, so no one is likely to ask why Marxism should continue to make a strong appeal - and not only to union activists.
Yet since Mrs Thatcher made it morally OK to be a rich, greedy capitalist like her friend and supporter Sir James Goldsmith, there has been little or no restriction on the activities of big business. Every day the press records not just cases of overt corruption, but the huge sums being paid out to directors, inflated salaries, golden handshakes, share options and all the perks. The Daily Mail may be surprised there are so many lefties on the warpath these days. I am not.