A Tory joins the Communist Party (1949)

From the November 1949 issue of the Socialist Standard

Any person wishing to apply for membership of the Labour Party, Communist Party, Conservative Party, Liberal Party, Socialist Party of Great Britain, and, as far as we are aware, any other political party, must first of all fill in an appropriate application form. Of all these parties, only the S.P.G.B. insists upon something more—that every applicant for membership should at the same time prove to the satisfaction of the members that he or she understands the Party’s case. We insist upon this examination for a purpose—an obvious purpose—to ensure that Socialists only come into our ranks. And as an example, amusing but nevertheless instructive, of the sort of thing that can happen when such precautions are not taken is a little paragraph tucked away in the Daily Telegraph of 8th October. It seems to us a pity that it should pass by unrecorded in the columns of the Socialist Standard.

It appears that a certain “Pete” Macdonald, of 39, Lugley Street, Newport, Isle of Wight, had the dubious honour a little time ago of receiving a letter from the General Organisation Department of the British Communist Party. This is what it said: —

“Dear Comrade: We are very pleased to receive your letter ot' application for membership of the Communist Party. May we take this opportunity of welcoming you as a member?”

Unfortunately for the Communist Party, however, their General Organisation Department seems to have been organising just a little too generally. It now turns out that the address to which the letter was sent is none other than the head office of the Isle of Wight Conservative Party! As for “Pete” Macdonald (we wonder whether it was the “ Pete ” that got him his membership) he is apparently no other than Sir Peter Macdonald, Conservative M.P. for the Isle of Wight for the past twenty-five years! Somebody has been playing a joke upon the Communist Party and in their enthusiasm for enrolling anybody and everybody capable of signing his name (or somebody else’s), they fell for it hook, line, and sinker.

We hear a great deal about the Communist technique of “boring from within,” and of how good they are supposed to be at doing it. It now seems that one of the easiest things possible, certainly, is to bore from within—inside the Communist Party!

Stan Hampson