I’ve generally considered the amusement some leftists take from Gerard Henderson’s blog to be slightly distasteful, an echo of the nineteenth-century fashion for visiting London’s asylum to giggle at the Bedlamites as they grimaced and drooled and tugged at themselves.

‘Since 1947, he has been intermittently associated with Communist-sponsored peace activities.’ That’s from an ASIO file compiled in the 1960s about the jazz pianist Graeme Bell, who died last week aged 97.