Lunching with a friend I notice that the adjoining table is occupied by an elderly gentleman with a vaguely familiar face and three younger companions. He smiles and nods. As lunch proceeds, recognition dawns. It's the brutish one-time hard-core Stalinist stalwart of the CPGB, later authoritarian and ever-loyal Blairite home secretary, John Reid. An hour later, as I'm leaving, the following conversation takes place:

Reid: Halloo.

Me: Glad you jumped ship in time?

Reid: I left after Blair resigned. Last three years and Broon a total disaster.

Me: I agree. But you think Blair would have won? Crazy.

Reid: Still as subversive as ever, I see.

Me: I always had a visceral hatred of New Labour.

Reid: If we'd listened to people like you the Tories would have been in power for another 13 years.

Me: They were. Just called themselves New Labour.

Tariq Ali

LRB 10 June 2010 | PDF Download