From Double Standards
The canting element in the British left is having a field day. It has been suggested that a future Labour government would lead a boycott against Spain because of the Grimau execution: no such call went up against the USSR over the execution of another Communist, Imre Nagy— the circumstances of whose seizure involved not merely the domestic police, but the invasion of a foreign country and the breach of a safe- conduct guarantee. At the same time we have agitation about Greece. One commentator, as happy as larry with regimes like those of Ghana and Indonesia, and reasonably content with those of Bulgaria and Rumania, went so far into fantasy as to suggest that Greece was a more or less 'fascist' country craving a link with Britain in order to gain an appearance of 'respectability.' Greece, you must understand, has contested elections, opposition deputies, a variety of newspapers from left to right—but it has a right-wing government! So it cannot be a democracy, can it? Of course, this is linked with the appeals about political prisoners. One may sympathise with the wife of anyone wishing to secure his release from prison, whether Ambatielos or Speer. But to use such sympathies, rather than the merits of the particular case, as an argument is pretty low-grade demagogy.
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