I agree that lots of his writing is very good, even after he embraced the cause of imperialism. That’s because he had a good ear for the left’s weaker points, which he mocked with wit – and also with more grounding in the political ideas of the left than many of his critics. (He was better on the history of political positions than he was on Marxist theory, which he seems to have been mostly uninterested in.) Still, in their debates, I think George Galloway had the better of the argument over Iraq, which just goes to show that it is the justice of the cause that wins the argument in the end.
Surprising just how many of the International Socialists/SWP stars were privately educated!