CRAIG BROWN: Christmas for Commies? It’s all Marx & censors
In her new memoir, Diane Abbott presents a grim picture of her famous youthful romance with Jeremy Corbyn. Few would imagine that stepping out with Jeremy Corbyn would have been all champagne and roses, but this was something so dour as to be more like a funeral than a fling.
The only time I ever met Diane Abbott, she was merrily flirting across the table with the portly Tory Sir Nicholas Soames. She struck me then as a fun-lover, not naturally suited to undertaking a camping holiday with the earnest, tut-tutting young vegetarian Jeremy Corbyn.
Sure enough, Diane Abbott recalls her 1979 camping holiday in France with Corbyn: ‘We travelled by motorbike and, Jeremy being Jeremy, it was a socialist motorbike, an East German model. It broke down regularly on our trip south, which I found rather irritating, but lovingly repairing his motorbike by the side of the road was Jeremy’s happy place.’
Diane had been looking forward to living it up in some wonderful French restaurants. But Corbyn had other ideas. ‘When we reached the campsite I perked up. As well as enjoying the French countryside, I was looking forward to some delicious Gallic cuisine. I was horrified when Jeremy unpacked his motorbike saddlebags to reveal a week’s supply of instant macaroni and other processed foods.’
The only time I ever met Diane Abbott (pictured), she was merrily flirting across the table with the portly Tory Sir Nicholas Soames. She struck me then as a fun-lover, not naturally suited to undertaking a camping holiday with the earnest, tut-tutting young vegetarian Jeremy Corbyn
In Tony Benn’s diary entry for Christmas, 1976, he describes the presents his family give each other. ‘Caroline (his wife) gave each of us a copy of the Communist Manifesto in our stockings’
She felt a similar sense of shock when he asked her to stay with his parents for Christmas. With her Jamaican family, Diane had always enjoyed jolly, fun-loving boozy Christmases, but the austere, puritanical Corbyns were not ones to let their hair down. There was no alcohol, and the vegetables were all boiled.
Once, after she had complained to him about how little they went out, Corbyn spent a few days pondering on the matter, before announcing he planned to take her somewhere special. ‘Feeling excited, I dressed up nicely, and we bundled into the car. I had no idea where we were going – perhaps a nice wine bar?’
But she was to be disappointed. ‘It turned out Jeremy’s idea of a social outing was to drive me to Highgate cemetery and proudly show me the tomb of Karl Marx.’ Her memories remind me of Corbyn’s socialist mentor, Tony Benn.
In Benn’s diary entry for Christmas, 1976, he describes the presents his family give each other. ‘Caroline (his wife) gave each of us a copy of the Communist Manifesto in our stockings, published in English in Russia, and she gave Josh a book called Marx for Beginners and gave Hilary Isaac Deutscher’s three-volume biography of Trotsky.’
Diane had always enjoyed jolly, fun-loving boozy Christmases, but the austere, puritanical Corbyns were not ones to let their hair down. There was no alcohol , and the vegetables were all boiled
The tomb of Karl Marx in London. Diane has revealed that Jeremy’s idea of a social outing was to drive her to Highgate cemetery and proudly show Diane the tomb of Karl Marx
Are Christmases much merrier among Tories? The evidence suggests not. In 1987, Edwina Currie was a thrusting young Junior Minister in Mrs Thatcher’s government.
Everything seemed to be going her way. But still she could muster up no festive cheer: ‘Christmas at home. I don’t like Christmas. There’s too much of it, and I don’t believe it: the paganism, the rebirth in the depths of winter, etc…’
Christmas was particularly joyless for Edwina’s young daughters, with nothing whatsoever to unwrap. ‘The commercialism always makes me nauseous. Long ago I did a “deal” with the kids: no presents, but I’ll take them to the sales afterwards.’
From the sound of it, Edwina’s then husband, Ray, was even more of a downer. ‘Ray isn’t settled and managed to reduce me to tears after the meal when I said ‘87 had been a good year. He said it had been a terrible year for him, with a broken neck most of the year and likely to be in pain all his life.’ Of course, at this time Edwina was having an affair with John Major, which wouldn’t have brought a smile to Ray’s face.
Margaret Thatcher, was no better equipped for family festivities. As Education Minister, she had refused to go on family holidays without a nanny to look after her twins. In his wonderful authorised biography, Charles Moore states that holidays were ‘a phenomenon which the Thatchers regarded as occasionally necessary, but unpleasant, like going to the dentist’.
Former Tory minister Edwina Currie revealed she did a “deal” with with her children that they would receive ‘no presents, but I’ll take them to the sales afterwards’
Margaret Thatcher, was no better equipped for family festivities. As Education Minister, she had refused to go on family holidays without a nanny to look after her twins
On one occasion, Mrs Thatcher booked in for a 10-day holiday in Corsica with her husband Denis. But after just four days, she phoned her secretary. ‘Hello, dear. We’re at Heathrow.’
‘Oh,’ said her secretary, ‘Has something dreadful happened?’
‘Oh no, dear. We’ve done Corsica.’
