Email from another normblog reader:
My sister is over visiting me from America. When she was at university in the late 70s she was a member of the SWP. ('Lindsey German is the reason I left...') On Saturday morning we were standing at the bus stop [somewhere in London] watching the Swappies set up their Troops Out banners outside Budgens.'What do they say, she enquired, when you ask them about the Saddam regime?' (She was a supporter of the war.)
'They say, Saddam was a dictator, but he has to be overthrown by the masses not US imperialism.'
'And what if you ask...?' 'They say, has to be overthrown by the masses.' 'And what if you...?' 'Overthrown by the masses.' 'And what if...?' 'The masses!''Wow!' she said, 'its all coming back, like riding a bike.'
And she proceeded to recite to me the entire SWP position on the war. 'It's easy, once you have a few basic principles down, you can apply it to every situation and it works every time, apart from the fact that it never works at all.'