Thursday, July 21, 2005
How times change
Watching Prime Minister's Questions on the TV news yesterday, I was struck by the fact that Tony Blair was flanked by two of Britain's leading young political rebels of the late 1960s.
On one side of Blair sat Jack Straw, the first 'political' president of the NUS (National Union of Students), whose name was a byword for student protest in that era. On the other side sat Peter Hain, a prominent Young Liberal and Anti-Apartheid activist in those days, notorious for digging up cricket pitches. If Tariq Ali had been sitting alongside them, we would have had the complete set.
Today, Straw and Hain are leading members of Britain's most authoritarian government since the second world war. There is a moral in here somewhere but I am not sure what it is.
Tariq Ali, on the other hand, maintains his radical credentials by voting Liberal Democrat.
