7/27/2019 Andy Newman_ the Labour Hopeful Who Says Stalin Improved Living Standards and the Berlin Wall Was 'a Great S

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Red Andy, the Labour hopeful who says Stalinimproved living standards and the Berlin Wall

was 'a great success' (but Ed says the party

HASN'T lurched to the Left)

Labour is keen to downplay suggestions it is getting more left-wing

But the party selected Andy Newman as candidate for Chippenham in 2015

The trade union offic ial has written of Stalin's rule in glowing termsHe also attacked the Dalai Lama in ultra-left-wing publ ications

Conservative Party Chairman Grant Shapps has called for his deselection

PUBLISHED: 21:02 GMT, 12 October 2013 | UPDATED: 21:02 GMT, 12 October 2013

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'No place in politics today': Andy Newman, pictured, has been attacked after paying

tr ibute to Stalin in art icles

Red Ed Miliband is keen to play down suggestions that Labour has lurched to the Left under hisleadership.

But the message doesnt seem to have reached leafy Chippenham, where the party has just selected anapologist for Stalin as its candidate for the next General Election.

At first glance, Andy Newman would appear to be a good fit with the affluent Wiltshire seat, held by LiberalDemocrat Duncan Hames.

Educated at a private school and Oxford University, Mr Newmans CV bears the hallmarks of a modernLabour politician.

However, a delve into some of his recent writings suggests the union official is determined to keep the RedFlag flying over the West Country.

He has called the Berlin Wall a great success and praised the significant improvement in working classliving standards during Stalins Great Terror.

He described the attacks on Pearl Harbour as the opening salvo in a war between two rival imperialisms equating America with wartime Japan under Emperor Hirohito and branded the Dalai Lama a figureheadfor slavery.

In the run-up to his selection last month, the telecoms engineer set out some of his uncompromising beliefsin articles in ultra-left-wing publications.

Paying tribute to Stalins character, whose brutal dictatorship led to the deaths of millions of citizens, hewrote earlier this year: We should recognise how Stalin was the creature of his times; and not alone inculpability.

What is more, the character of Stalin, who almost through a feat of sheer will industrialised and militarised

the USSR to defend itself against the Nazi threat, was also the character that ruthlessly regarded people asexpendable. It did give Stalin the attributes needed to be a great war leader.

And in 2009, Mr Newman, who is the local branch secretary of the GMB union, used a piece in SocialistUnity to put a positive gloss on the tyrants rule.

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'Shocking:' Mr Newman wrote of the rule of Joseph Stalin, right, in glowing t erms

Describing him in apparently respectful terms as the Stalin, he wrote: Free market capitalism had seenworldwide depression in the 1930s and had led to fascism and war.

'Meanwhile the USSRs economy had achieved staggering success in the same period, including asignificant improvement in working class living standards, despite the Stalins terror.

In the same article, he wrote warmly of the Berlin Wall: If we set to one side the issue of personal liberty,the [Berlin] wall was a great success.

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'Red' Ed: Mr Miliband, pictured, has played down his party's ' lurch t o the Left' - but the

message does not seem to have reached Mr Newman

In other writings he has described modern Britain as a marriage between England, Wales and Scotlandwhich is based on shared guilt, with the bloodstains of the British Empire soaked equally into the souls ofthe English, Welsh and Scots.

He has also opposed Tibetan resistance to the socialist Chinese hegemonic state sector, dismissing theDalai Lama as a feudal figurehead of the slavery and barbarism in Tibets past.

Last night, Conservative Party chairman Grant Shapps said Mr Newmans grossly offensive beliefs willshock ordinary people up and down the country and called for his deselection.

He added: Suggestions that the Berlin Wall was a good thing and Stalin was a great leader have no placein politics today the Labour Party must act immediately and sack this throwback.

A Labour spokesman said: This is a desperate smear attempt by the Tories. Labour are concentrating onaddressing the cost-of-living crisis.

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jackiesolo, my back garden, United Kingdom, 3 days ago

Nah I think I`ll still vote UKIP.

48557

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Campbell, Oxford UK., 3 days ago

We lived in Chippenham in the 1980s, & can safely say it was a seething hotbed of Stalinist-Trotskyist red-flag waving zealots.

Not.

15296

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John, Falmouth, United Kingdom, 3 days ago

He's as likely to end up as MP for Chippenham as to fly to the moon.

10412

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David Bourke, Rochester, United Kingdom, 3 days ago

Typical lefty idiot. Living standards certainly didn't improve for the hundreds of thousands executed under Stalin's regime.

24651

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pedrokalbo, indang, 3 days ago

A vote for them is a vote for the destruction of the UK.

28615

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The All Seeing Eye., N. London, 3 days ago

Ed is right... The party hasn't lurched to the left. It has fallen to the left! It was, however, positioned on a cliff edge prior to the fall,so it is not know how far the fall will be!

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The All Seeing Eye., N. London, 3 days ago

The tree shall be known by it's fruit!

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Edit public profile, Somewhere over the rainbow, United Kingdom, 3 days ago

Andy Newman. Hopefully a name we will hear less about, not more. Similar to my view of Mili ''Tant'' Miliband.

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Gallowglass, London, United Kingdom, 3 days ago

Stalin kept the masses quiet by making them queue all day for a loaf of bread. So they kept depending on Mother State.

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Elsie, England UK, United Kingdom, 3 days ago

Sounds like the perfect candidate. Wrong constituency though, he should have been put somewhere like Glasgow if they reallywanted him to be elected.

20374

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