Rare Leftist Who "Gets It"

Saturday's Independent (UK) prints a wonderful portrait of British actor Herbert Lom. Born in Czechoslovakia, the 87 year old emigrated to England in early 1939. After flirting with Communism, he's wiser today:

I have spent my life learning other people's lines. Now I want to say some of my own. We are constantly told that our prime minister is a charlatan, a liar, a cheat, a poodle. Not once but 15 times a day. I have lived in Czechoslovakia, France and England and I have never known anything like it. You know, I am as scared of Clare Short as I am of Saddam Hussein. She can bring this Government down, I think. As a woman I find her very attractive, but she is a pain in the arse. Tony Blair is a brilliant and brave prime minister. It must distress him that chopping off heads, which has become fashionable among those villains in the desert, is not considered as wicked as failing to find the so-called weapons of mass destruction.

(via Roger Simon)