Pav’s Patch; Privileged few can adopt the loony left

WHAT happened to the loony left? Remember the Socialist Workers, Militant Tendency, Derek Hatton? Where are they now?

Nowadays, people worry about the extreme right, but in the 1970s, the concerns were all about a red takeover and you couldn’t go shopping without seeing someone flogging copies of the Socialist Worker newspaper.

My university days were dominated by the extreme left, and I can remember a lad called Dave selling Socialist Workers in 1977, yelling: “Get your Socialist Worker. Stuff the jubilee.”

Ten or so years later, when it was Australia’s bicentennial, I saw a piece about it on “Newsnight”. In the background I could hear shouts of: “Get your Socialist Worker, stuff the bicentennial.” And yes, there was Dave trying to export revolution when he should have been saddled with children and a mortgage.

But there’s the rub. Dave, champion of the working classes, was in fact from a privileged background and his dad would pay his fees each year when Dave had failed his exams because he’d been playing politics.

In fact, I don’t think I ever met a working class red fireball. There was Richard, a very well spoken ex-public schoolboy with long curly red hair, and Angela. Now she was a feminist, rode a bike, never combed her blonde hair and dressed shabbily.

She even insisted on wearing shapeless skirts over green knitted tights. But I reckon she would have been quite tasty if she’d dolled herself up. I’d love to know what happened to her. Bet she married a stockbroker.

The left used to run the students’ union and once caused a stir by withdrawing recognition from Israel. There was quite a fuss about it and the Jewish Society even sought a court order. On the other hand, I doubt that they were quaking in their boots in Jerusalem. And, just to add a twist of irony, Dave was Jewish.

Everything changed when the lefties tried to disrupt a visit by the Duke of Edinburgh to open the new mechanical engineering building. Mech Eng turned up at the meeting mob-handed, swamping the odd 18 who were usually there, and demanded that we go straight to the vote after only two speeches.

A forest of hands went up to win the motion, and then another forest to defeat any attempt to spoil the visit.

But the best bit was when a big guy called Les did what no one had ever done before. Scruffy Angela was trying to hector us all but he stopped her in her tracks with a booming shout of: “shut up bag”.