Just on the question of football and Trotskyism , my mind went back to Italia 90 and the intervention of the SWPs Central Committee in Harlesden Branch . A very concerned Sheila McGregor phoned me and some other comrades expressing concern about key and experienced members non attendance at some educational meeting which the district had organised failing to take into consideration the World Cup fixtures . I think we were into game 2 or 3 if the group staged . She got a sort of verbal shrug of the shoulders . Cometh the branch meeting and cometh Chris Bamberry who talked passionately about the necessary of routine , commitment to the struggle and pointed out that Scottish comrades had had full attendance , glut of new members and record paper sales .’Why?’ He asked , ‘was this branch different ‘.One new comrade wearing an England shirt ( oblivious to Bamberry’s position partly due to him not being familiar with the great and the good and partly because we’d met for a pre branch drink ) patiently explained that Scotland were going out in the group stage so it didn’t really matter to those comrades but England were still in it . Bamberry wasn’t as impressed as the new comrade thought he might be and immediately denounced the need to ‘Stamp out the Terry Butcher faction’ that was clearly holding back building the party in North West London .
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