20 MAY 2006, Page 24

Reid the Red

From Jonathan Mirsky

Sir: When I heard Mr Blair warning what would happen if he stood down at the wrong moment, it sounded familiar. Then I recalled that the Prime Minister’s close comrade, Home Secretary John Reid, is an ex-communist. Of course! The Chinese Communist party constantly insists that only it can maintain the country’s fragile stability. Every schoolchild learns to sing this jingle: ‘Without the Communist party there would be no New China’.

Jonathan Mirsky London W11