Thank God for that. For one awful moment I thought MtheGM had given up living.

Sorry M. Two year's compulsory national service does not qualify you as a horny handed son of toil, even when it is done at squaddie level.

You are almost correct though. I am a man of considerable education, as well as being a horny handed son of toil.

To elucidate. I educated myself by making liberal use of our splendid public library system, whilst working by day as a delivery boy, french polisher, building worker, lab technician and quality controller. Of course, several night school courses played their part, as did the desire to immerse myself in the writings of Karl Marx, Trotsky and Lenin, to say nothing of the works of numerous social historians such as EP Thompson, Christopher Hill, EJ Hobsbawm and the Hammonds. That of course, was in addition to immersing myself in every book on music I could lay my hands on, plus various tomes on literature, poetry and drama.

Sad to say that, Marx apart, I didn't manage to embrace many of the other social philosophers, although I eventually spent three years at university, which sorted that one out nicely. That of course was three years which, when I wasn't studying, was spent brushing floors, scrubbing toilets, delivering Christmas post, and anything else I could find to support myself.

Silver spoon be damned!

Anyway, you haven't told us yet how you conceive of Cromwell's commonwealth as left wing. If Cromwell was left wing, where does that place Adolf Hitler? Yes I know somewhere to the left of Michael Grosvenor-Myer.