 Thursday, July 26, 2001
by
Giles Coren A SCHOOLFRIEND of David Irving calls to say:
"I stood against Irving in the Brentwood School mock
general election of 1955. He was representing Labour
and because nobody would listen to him he grabbed a
megaphone and began playing slogans across the
playground." Such as " Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein
Führer"? "No, Labour slogans. But he made playtime feel like
a Nuremberg rally. It did him no good though. He lost
to a fellow who had made up his own party. It had a
rather apt name, in retrospect." Oh? What was it called? "It was The Intellectual Extremist Party."
[see Coren's
earlier guffaws: Write off, July
14, 2001][ and July
24, 12001] |
Thursday,
July 26, 2001 : THE Times publishes yet another
sneering diary item today (above). If anybody talks "about Nuremberg rallies" again at
Brentwood School, I shall feel tempted to produce the
16mm film taken by Sidney Burgin, our geography
teacher, showing me haranguing the crowd  (the
film is now in Brentwood Public Library). I was attending
speaking classes organised by the Co-operative Movement
at the time. At least The Times has not published again
the photo, allegedly showing me at school, which they
used last time. It was actually a picture of J I
Bowden (right), the head Boy, who distinguished
himself by failing all his "A" levels. The mystery is, who could their source be? My brother
Nicky, who aided David Handley Hutt, now a
high clergyman at St. Paul's Cathedral I believe -- I
last saw him on television officiating at the
Diana funeral -- who stood for the Right Wing
National Party?  Nicholas
Irving, D Handley Hutt, N A Maryan Green B.
Merritt, the Communist candidate? N A
Maryan-Green, who stood for the conservatives? B
Everitt, the Liberal? R S Rehahn, the Social
Democrat? D A Dallas, the flamboyant candidate for
the Intellectual Extremists (who were mostly praepostors)
-- they swept the election in a landslide.
I have burrowed through my old boxes of pictures, for
the first time in forty years. The photo I have found
shows somebody standing for Labour, namely me; I fared
rather less well than the I.E's. But that was the Labour of Aneurin Bevan, to
whose oratory in Trafalgar Square I thrilled in October
1956; and of Ernest Bevin, not the wimpish,
Gucci-clad, gangle-mouthed Blairite females, males, and
hermaphrodites of today.  Interesting 1955 "Old England" note: the crowd
in the school playground hearing the speeches is all
White. There was one Indian boy, Chaudhury, at the
school; one Catholic (K W Murray), and, as a loud
mouthed and belligerent Mr. M A Franks enlightened
me at Miami airport two or three years ago, two
Jews. |
