Historian Eric Hobsbawm dies, aged 95
I remember having to read Eric Hobsbawn's vile articles in the New Statesman while reading PPE at Oxford. Eric Hobsbawn was an awful person and an apologist for mass murder. (I'm so glad that we had some honsesty about him from the redoubtable Damian Thompson in the Telegraph last Saturday.)
An unrepentant Marxist, he acknowledged the failure of 20th Century communism but said he had not given up on Marxist ideals.
In April, he told fellow historian Simon Schama he would like to be remembered as "somebody who kept the flag flying."
Labour leader Ed Miliband said Prof Hobsbawm was "an extraordinary historian, a man passionate about his politics and a great friend of his family". Yes indeed.
Damian Thompson is a fine man and an articulate rightwinger and a Roman Catholic. Nice combination.
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