Lenin, b 22 April 1870 d 21st January 1924. Cats, dogs & socialism
Making a connection between the politics of Lenin who died 102 years ago this week with cats and dogs is a complex and dialectical question.
Lenin however was certainly a cat lover, having several in his Kremlin apartment from 1918.
John S Clarke who was a professional lion tamer visited Moscow in 1920 and reportedly helped to train and organise cats. However while attending the Second Congress of the Comintern Clarke cured Lenin’s dog of an illness. Clarke went on to become a Labour MP (those were the days)
The picture of Lenin with a cat was taken in the village of Gorki in 1922
We should however be cautious about assuming an automatic link between cats and any particular trend on the left, Rosa Luxemburg described what happened when her cat Mimi met Lenin:
“She also flirted with him, rolled on her back and behaved enticingly toward him,” Luxemburg writes. “But when he tried to approach her she whacked him with a paw and snarled like a tiger.
Thanks to John Rees for pointing out that the Belgian PM speaking at Davos quoted Gramsci’s words from the Prison Notebooks that the crisis lies in the fact that the old is dying but the new cannot be born, now is the time of monsters.
The Belgian PM meant Trump, Gramsci meant late capitalism….
Nigel Farage has apologised, not yet for his alleged racist and anti-Semitic remarks made while he was a student at Dulwich College, but because he failed to submit £380,000 of earnings to the Parliamentary authorities on the agreed timescales.
Errors happen and Farage isn’t the first. However what it tells us about Farage and Reform is interesting and far removed from the BS that can be found in many media outlets.
The £380,000 is a reminder that man of the people Farage is the highest earning MP and that he has lots of jobs of which his elected and publicly funded job as an MP is essentially a springboard for the rest.
Secondly it underlines stories that Reform are professionalising are also wide of the mark. Farage blamed his staff for the errors but did at least take ownership of the issue with the apology.
Thirdly and perhaps most interestingly Farage says he is computer illiterate. So all the social media across a number of platforms may feature Farage but they are not done by Farage. Of course political leaders cant spend all day on social media but this suggests a fundamental gap between Farage and the public persona known as Farage.
Of course the familiar story is that young people tend towards radicalism and as people get older they get more conservative, having material things such as property and pension they wish to protect.
I’m 69 and remain on the far left of politics as I have been since I was a teenager so the trend is far from absolute.
Last year on occasion Reform were bigging up the number of younger supporters they had. Silence has now fallen on that point and a recent analysis by Tim Bale at QMC (Guardian 20th January) underlines that Reform voters are towards the more senior in terms of age range.
The YouGov poll is nevertheless striking. Whatever one thinks of the Green Party, as opposed to wider green politics, its seems clear that climate change and the environment are unsurprisingly big concerns of younger people. Conversely Reform doesnt think they matter at all.
The usual caveat. Its just a poll but also a reminder that YouGov as a large commercial polling organisation which does business with business because it is thought to have some level of accuracy, has put its flaky days behind it. Profit is at stake now.
Proposed route of the North Atlantic telegraph 1860
There are 50 volumes of the Collected Works of Marx and Engels which comprises their published articles, books etc and a good deal of their correspondence (there are a few gaps).
There is however only one reference to Greenland which is an article under Marx’s name and published in the New York Daily Tribune on 15th September 1854. Its likely that Engels supplied some of the details. Quite how the Tribune deciphered Marx’s notoriously difficult to read hand writing I’m not sure. Marx and Engels produced over 500 articles for the paper to the early 1860s when the events of the American Civil War occupied its columns rather than news and analysis from elsewhere.
The reference to Greenland, in fact a quotation, is interesting. The specific article was written in the context of the Crimean War 1853-56- in which Britain was of course involved- and the mention of Greenland and its role in widening the reach of the Victorian internet (the telegraph) reflects the strategic location of the country.
Fortunately I dont think Donald Trump is familiar with the Collected Works of Marx and Engels
1854 also saw a scientific expedition to the Artic and also, not exactly unrelated, the beginning of the mining of cryolite (used in aluminium) in Greenland
Being still in the Baltic I may as well give a place here to the following piece of news contained in the Aftonbladet. “A correspondent from Copenhagen announces as certain that the Danish Government authorized on Aug. 16, Mr. T. P. Shaffner to establish a line of electric telegraph extending from North America through Greenland, Iceland, the Faroe Islands and Norway to Copenhagen. On the 26th a line was opened from Stockholm to Malmö. The extent of this line is 68,670 yards.”
The actions of the Allied Fleet, New York Daily Tribune 15th September 1854
The Beard Liberation Front banner was launched at a rather soggy Scotland v England cricket match in Aberdeen in May 2014. Since then thanks to long term sports and beards fans it has appeared around the world at various sporting events.
On Sunday 18th January it was a bit closer to home. It was on display at the Cock Tavern, Hackney as part of an event to celebrate the life of my partner Megan Davies (1958-2025). Megan was at the Aberdeen launch.
The question arose again of who the three people are who are pictured on the banner and what their connection might be.
I missed the story earlier in January probably because it appeared in the Mail but Polly Toynbee references it in a Guardian article (20th January).
Farage’s view of the Government’s, in my view sensible further restrictions on drinking and driving is that they were ‘dreamt up by the Islington cycling elite’.
Apparently people only cycle to the pub in North London and never in rural areas, at least according to Farage/
It is the case that lots of people do cycle in north-east London and TFL have recently been claiming that this is one reason for a decline in bus passenger numbers. I’ve never cycled, preferring travel by foot, bus and train, but I think cycling in London is a little safer than hitherto with the fairly widespread provision of bike lanes.
Even so, and I appreciate that despite bluster about Reform support in London, Farage is unlikely to found holding an open air meeting on Islington Green or Highbury Fields. However many use the bus and indeed I found myself again on the 38 from Islington to Hackney last Saturday. It was early evening so people were talking not about Farage, boats or Starmer but their plans for the evening
The 38 bus has a place in left history. David Widgery left an MS on it and Sheila Rowbotham notes journeys in her memoirs.
It runs from Victoria Station through Central London to Islington, central Hackney and ends at Clapton Pond- the Lea Bridge Roundabout. However, for those who may not have noticed, TFL have plans to curtail the route at Holborn in 2026. Details are on the TFL website https://haveyoursay.tfl.gov.uk/bus-routes-19-38 Comments are open until 23rd January 2026. While TFL doesn’t have a great record of listening to individual comments if local Councils, Councillors, residents associations etc get involved then changes are not always a fait accompli
Kemi Badenoch has purged Honest Bob Jenrick as a Tory member but how he has become a supporter of Nigel Farage’s Reform business he is busy burning his bridges in the Tory Party.
He queries why (Times 19th Jan) Liz Truss remains a Tory member. He claims that Badenoch has not purged Truss because the conspiracy theorist fan still has support within the Tory Party….
Megan Davies 1958-2025. Celebration 18th January 2026 at the Cock Tavern E8
Original drawing by Inga Bystram. Features Alex (High Cross, Tottenham) & myself
A London celebration of Megan’s life took place at the Cock Tavern, 315 Mare St, London E8 1EJ.
A substantial gathering of friends, family and Cock regulars to celebrate the life of Megan took place at the Cock Tavern on Sunday afternoon (and evening) 18th January. Friends from her University days, political and union comrades, and a range of people from the world of beer were all present to raise a glass to Megan’s memory.
Her partner of 30 years Keith Flett spoke briefly noting that the late Vic Allen, the historian of the National Union of Mineworkers, had remarked that such occasions were of course social ones, but they are also used to build networks and struggles for the times ahead. In the words of Joe Hill, which Megan certainly supported, don’t mourn, organise. Hazel Potter read the words of Michael Rosen which had also been read at the conclusion of Megan’s funeral on December 5th.
Thanks to Joel, manager at the Cock and friend of Megan and to Hazel and Ian for bringing the official Beard Liberation Front banner which was displayed in the bar. The banner had been unveiled at a Scotland v England cricket match in May 2014 when Megan, Hazel and Ian had also been present
While I agree that there is much to be done to improve end-of-life care (Editorial, 29 October; Letters, 2 November), in Megan’s case, she was able to stay at home and enjoy many of the things she liked until a final two-day stay in hospital, where she also received good care.
This was achieved by a combination of support from family, friends and her local GP, together with targeted assistance from hospice-based palliative care nurses.
It was not, of course, perfect and sometimes required chasing up treatment and medication, but that web of care seems to me an important matter, if, of course, it can be achieved with a stretched NHS and still austere Britain. Keith Flett Tottenham, London (letter in the Guardian)
Donations in Megan’s memory may be made to Medical Aid for Palestinians online. Thanks to those who have donated including from the Pop and Hops Pub Quiz on 18th December https://www.map.org.uk/?form=FUNFXHDCJPK
Many thanks to Megan’s sister Bronwen Davies for invaluable assistance and help
Fascism: I sometimes fear…
I sometimes fear that
people think that fascism arrives in fancy dress
worn by grotesques and monsters
as played out in endless re-runs of the Nazis.
Fascism arrives as your friend.
It will restore your honour,
make you feel proud,
protect your house,
give you a job,
clean up the neighbourhood,
remind you of how great you once were,
clear out the venal and the corrupt,
remove anything you feel is unlike you…
It doesn’t walk in saying,
“Our programme means militias, mass imprisonments, transportations, war and persecution.”
