MtheGM wrote 'I enter this post in [I hope] no vindictive spirit, but in that of a seeker for just assessments, who, however, like most of us, unwillingly, did not attempt to evade the duties required of me by the Law.'

This sounds to me rather like a Nurnberg Trial defence.

I knew McColl and argued with him on purely political grounds but did not discuss the policies of his club. I didn't like the bunch of Ganymedes it flung up, however, but great men always have copycats. His actions or reactions to serving in World War ll were personal but I would have thought it was difficult for a Communist to reconcile the vagaries or vacillations of the British government over the period of the war. One minute Uncle Joe was a Great Friend and Russia was 'the land where the sun didn't set' and the next, when it suited HMG's policy, to reveal that Stalin was a mass murderer.

I refused to comply with 'the duties required of me by the Law' during the Suez debacle of 1957 and ended up in Barlinnie gaol for six months as a conscientious objector. Times were different during Ewan's time but do not seem to be a-changing.