It would seem that Fidel Castro was not really a bad man.
He was " a huge figure of modern history", "a champion of social justice", a man who "stood up for something very, very, different" and "a giant among global leaders whose view was not only one of freedom for his people, but for all of the oppressed and excluded peoples on the planet".
Now the aforementioned quotes weren't from Vladimir Putin. He simply stated that the late President Castro was a "distinguished statesman", the "symbol of an era" and a "sincere and reliable friend of Russia". Yep, so reliable that if Nikita Krushchev hadn't been made of such strong stuff, he would, at Castro's suggestion, have pushed the missile button and not just started World War Three, but actually wiped Cuba off the map in the process.
No, the first three quotes were from the most unsuitable UK Labour leader of modern times, Jeremy Corbyn, the latter, from the unkempt-haired president of the Republic of Ireland, Michael D Higgins, a giant amongst the rose bushes.
What these premium statesmen of the world political scene fail to realise is that Castro's dictatorship was an unmitigated and epic disaster of brutal and oppressive proportions. Free education and healthcare for all, yes, but with unbelievable poverty and food shortages and rationing. In fact, Castro was so good for Cuba, that over 1million Cubans exited stage left for Florida in the USA during his rule.
And in keeping with the plaudits handed out by both Mr Corbyn and President Higgins, independent media outlets were closed down wholesale, priests and homosexuals were dispatched to 'correction' camps and American rock music was declared the sound and work of the devil.
Put in a nutshell, it was nothing but a prime example of a first-class Communist failure. Which possibly explains why it ranks so highly in Mr Corbyn's top five regimes, presumably alongside his good friends in Hamas and the IRA.
Meanwhile back in England, and the BBC's Question Time programme of Thursday 24th November. Shadow Chancellor, John McDonnell, himself not exactly a beacon of actinic light on the UK political stage, became unwell and was unable to appear. Not really such a bad thing (not that I wish him unwell), because all he would have done would have been to bleat on and blame the Tories for everything while forgetting Labour was in fact in charge during the 2008 financial crisis. Anyway, the BBC asked former Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer (2015) Chris Leslie to step in instead.
Back at Labour HQ, chains weren't as much rattled as flushed as hard as they could be, and Mr Corbyn's IKEA cabinet went into dowling and screws overdrive and very speedily sent one of their other stand-by leftie loons, Andrew Gwynne along to get in on the act instead.
While Mr Gwynne managed to get as far as the Green Room, an astute member of the Question Time team realised Mr Gwynne wasn't exactly Mr Leslie, and asked him to pack his flat-pack and screwdriver and leave.
Now in trying to get Mr Gwynne on the panel when the BBC had already decided the stand-in they required, isn't that all rather Castro-ish and Cuban of Mr Corbyn's shady and dysfunctional cabal, eh?
