Today, and I’m in a talk on the different ideologies of the Spanish Civil War. Looking around, there doesn’t seem to be anyone standing, Marx in overall pocket, ready to join the rebellion or the defence of Syria. In fact, I think I’m the only person here after this particular conflict.
Then I take off my young-person-snob glasses. There aren’t a huge amount of students, and the audience seems to be more composed of a strange mix of Leicesterians, who thankfully move up so my friend can sit next to me.
The speakers, although each interesting, seem to come under the heading “anyone with any kind of connection to the Spanish Civil War, in any way”, rather than having any particular knowledge of the ideology itself. For this, I must refer to residual knowledge left over from the A level history lessons I took, now over two years ago.
The speakers in front of me seem to generally focus on the British perspective of the war. One looks at the BBC- this was the first war where there were radio reports. Naturally, the Daily Mail was critical, and it appears that the British government tried to make sure that the BBC was absolutely, totally and utterly neutral (or ever so slightly pro-Franco. Just in case). The left wing newspaper, the Daily Worker, were also critical. Poor BBC. You never could make everyone happy. But apparently, they were doing their best to keep things neutral, be balanced and generally not piss off anyone too much, and certainly for the former, it appears they did so to the best of their ability.
