Top marks for recognising the Quote.

Bottom Marx for forgetting that Chaves's conversion to "peoples democracy" is extereamly recent. and a cast on his previous attitude in supprot of Military takeovers etc

Well you could live in the paradise that is Venezuela I suppose.No doubt you find Livingstones approval of Islamic Nazis and the IRA equally edifying .
Lovely , and as I am a working man can I politely request you not to help me any more , thus far you have helped me into near penury with a 30% adjusted spending increase in ten years paid for by the single income family.Help someone else please.
I didn`t know Compass had roots in some Communist sect , they are Ken`s favourite think tank and have been working for nothing it appears on his behalf , you recall all the fuss.
Interesting, I didn`t know you were a far left radical Bob , were you a member of some organisation called Real Communist Future or something (splitters)? I daresay you had a pony tail and everything

Reading Nick Cohen on Ken, it seems the substance of his allegations were that Livingstone had some friends in the WRP and some of his advisers belonged to an obscure socialist sect. There seemed to be no specific allegations of wrong doing with regards to them, purely guilt by association.

GW - it depends what you mean by extremely recent. As I understand it Chavez has held these views for some considerable time, but in any event, what does that matter? I am all for people learning as they get older. Take newmania, for instance. Until I recently began chastising him his grammar, punctuation and spelling were simply shocking. Now, after only a couple of months he is almost able to compose a coherent sentence or two. OK, it is the same old rambling twaddle, and he will have to work much harder on his comprehension and structure, and his arguments are as batty as ever they were, but where there is light, there is hope.

Anyway, much better that Hugo has got wiser with age. Far better, in my opinion, that people turn from authoritarianism to people's democracy as they get older. Sadly with many it is the other way round.

The 1992 rebellion by Chavez needs a bit of context. It was hard on the heels of the "caracazo" which saw hundreds of deaths at the very least. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caracazo

Venezuela a paradise? It is a beautiful country that's for sure, from the beaches of Margarita to the mountains of Tachira, I would well recommend a visit. I second Tom Miller's description of Chavez's government.

The Channel 4 programme was a disgrace I thought and particularly disappointing coming from the political editor of the New Statesman. They've lost my sub for sure.