Boris is fond of making comments about ‘Pyong-Yang’, ‘Stalinists’ and ‘Tractor Factories’, so I’d like to draw his attention to an excellent rebuttal of this cheap and boringly familiar rhetorical device by a member of his own party, Councillor Paul Lynch (Chiswick Riverside Ward), responding to complaints about the part-closure of Chiswick House grounds recently:
A properly Stalinist approach would surely have been to close the park completely, without notice, never reopen it, and shoot anyone who complained. I cannot recall an instance of Stalin authorising the refurbishment of an historic park for the benefit of ordinary people. He did gain a certain notoriety for having Magnetogorsk connected to the national grid as the Civil War raged about the town, but that may be apochryphal. Saul or some other expert on Stalin may wish to correct me on that, it is not really my field. As a Conservative I have always approached matters in a more inclusive and consultative way, and very, very seldom have class enemies liquidated.
I like the tone of that, personally. Accusations of ‘Nazi’ or ‘Stalinist’ are flung around far too often for my liking, often deliberately to inflame and obscure an argument. Nice to see a politician taking it in on in an interesting way.
4 responses so far ↓
Agreed about Boris’s totalitarian comparisons, which is why it’s so much fun throwing them back at him.
A real Stalinist solution would be to announce that Chiswick House would no longer be demolished, then have the army blow it up one night secretly, build a giant skyscraper on the site, and then shoot everyone who complained, as was done with a church in Moscow and also with the Berliner Stadtschloss.
There never was a Chiswick House. There’s always been a magnificent skyscraper there.
What kind of capitalist running dog are you?
There was never a Town Hall in Kensington High Street, either, certainly not one that Kensington and Chelsea demolished overnight as soon as the GLC tried to list it. No.