Funny old world, politics. Two of the nastiest and most unhelpful Labour Party officials (and that is putting it mildly) while I was editing New Socialist, the party's supposedly intellectual magazine, in the 1980s were the glowering Charles Clarke and the glitteringly insincere Patricia Hewitt. They objected that the free exchanges on issues and ideas in the magazine were 'disloyal'. Geoff Hoon also had a reputation as a loyalist disciplinarian when he was in a position of power.

(See my post of yesterday for background.)