Quite a few left wing firebrands from the 1970s and 1980s have now been forgotten. Who can remember Red Robbo, Red Ted and, pictured below, Red Ron? Yes, such a person existed.
Red Ron was Ron Brown, MP for Leith. He got quite a reputation for being suspended repeatedly from the House of Commons, particularly on one occasion where he chucked the mace to the ground during a debate on the Poll Tax in 1988.
In 1982, Thatcher decided to pay a trip to Scotland where, to be honest, she wasn’t hugely popular. Brown appeared before her to deliver a socialist sermon and as you can see in his pose, he looks rather like a modern John Knox. Despite being an MP, he was still bundled to the ground by police officers.
