The Spectator’s Notes | 2 August 2018

Early in his career — and mine — I got to know Frank Field. Then, as now, he was being persecuted by extremists in his local Labour party. Then, as now, he was serenely uncompromising. Then, he won. But then — the early 1980s — the Bennite faction had not taken over the national party. Even Michael Foot, though fairly feeble in his fights with the hard left, came to Frank’s constituency and declared ‘If we lose Birkenhead, we lose the party.’ Now Benn’s most fervent disciple is Labour’s leader, and Frank has had not one word of support from the party’s central machine. Last week, the 1980s tricks were deployed once more: Frank had no notice of the resolution of his local party which called for him to be forbidden to stand for Labour at the next election as punishment for voting for the EU Withdrawal Bill. I don’t think he minds much. He has a 26,000 majority. His constituency opted for Leave, as did two thirds of all Labour seats. He will put his faith in his electors and stand at the next election whatever happens. But his attempted political assassination tells you what you need to know about the phenomenon of Jeremy Corbyn, who also entered national politics in the early 1980s: ‘In my beginning is my end’.

The Beano is 80 years old. Its owners D.C. Thomson manage the publicity so well that the Beano is always presented as a ‘good news’ story. The facts are rather different. At its height in the 1950s, the paper sold two million copies a week. Today it sells 31,000. When I first devoured it in the early 1960s, it cost 3d. If that price had stayed the same in real terms, its current price would be roughly 25p, but today it actually costs £2.75.