WHEN HARRY MET TONY, THE SHOWDOWN

In the second instalment the cause of the struggle between Harry and Tony was revealed and the stage set for their BIG showdown.

So there had to be a showdown between Harry and Tony at Paul Foot’s flat in posh Hyndland and, as a pal of Paul’s, I was invited.
When I arrived Harry and Tony had already locked horns: each was trying to out shout the other and the air was thick with angry accusations and denunciations.
This was not my scene and after a short stay I made my excused and left. Out on the street Harry and Tony could still be heard bawling at one another.
Cliff must have triumphed because several of the Govan and Gorbals lot followed him down to London and were active in his organisation.
Was this the end of Harry? Well, no, he went on to become Labour MP for Govan for a few years.

Tony triumphed over Harry in their battle for the hearts and minds of the Govan and Gorbals Young Socialists.
In 1962 I was still in the Labour Party and visited Cliff’s house near Arsenal’s Highbury Stadium. Gus McDonald, by then editor of Cliff’s youth paper “Young Guard”, was pounding a typewriter in the back room while Cliff was pontificating in the parlour. He was sat like a king on a throne with a semi-circle of young people literally sitting at his feet. Among them was John Palmer, later European editor of the “Guardian”, and Cliff was telling them, “When the workers are armed then you have the embryo of the workers’ state”.
Just the usual Leninist nonsense.

What became of those Govan and Gorbals firebrands? Some have died and others seem to have sunk without trace excepting, of course, Lord Gus McDonald who has done very well for himself.
An old comrade of mine told me that the political progress of leftists resembles reading the words on a page – start on the left and work to the right. McDonald is the perfect example of this. V.V.