Of Oz and Osborne

The death of Richard Neville conjures up the vanished world of Schoolkids' Oz , and with it of The Little Red Schoolbook.

Or is that a vanished world?

The Little Red Schoolbook referred to "child molesters and dirty old men" as merely having "no one to sleep with".

It encouraged children to seek inspiration from pornography even when it featured sadomasochism and bestiality.

As, by all accounts, they now do.

Today, The Little Red Schoolbook's chapter on drugs could come from the National Curriculum. Direct influence ought not to be ruled out.

Since 2014, well into David Cameron's era, The Little Red Schoolbook has been available in full in the United Kingdom. It is only a fiver on Amazon Prime, and a mere £3:99 on Kindle.

For all the adolescent pseudo-Marxism, the Communist Party was dead against this book, since it was nothing but a glorification of bourgeois hedonism.

But in the Britain of 2016, what is there that is not a glorification of bourgeois hedonism? Only Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn.

George Osborne would not welcome the b word.

But his universally known penchants for cocaine and prostitutes were never deemed to disqualify him from political office.

Indeed, he was for many years discussed as a potential Prime Minister.

On which note, here is Keith Vaz in his natural habitat.