Laurie Weidberg

Laurie E. Weidberg (died 1986) was a socialist writer and speaker based in Manchester and London.

Weidberg was raised in Manchester in petty-bourgeois Jewish family with strict religious ideas. In the 1930s, at the age of seventeen, he developed an interest in leftist politics. He attended a meeting of Stafford Cripps's Labour Party splinter group, but quickly became disillusioned with the speakers (including a young Barbara Castle) whom he judged to be motivated more by self-interest than genuine concern for the betterment of society. After about a year of perusing literature from various left-wing groups, he stumbled upon the Socialist Party of Great Britain's journal, The Socialist Standard, and was instantly convinced. Soon after, he joined the SPGB, and served as a regular writer for the Standard and as an outdoor speaker at Speakers' Corner and Lincoln's Inn.[1][2]

Weidberg had a reputation for being caustic, sharp-witted, and provocative, and he harboured a particular hatred for The Guardian. Besides dismissing the newspaper's overall tone as "half-baked lefty crap", he led an eleven-year campaign to challenge its report that snow had fallen during a Lord's cricket match on 2 June 1975.[3][4] The complaint made it all the way to the Press Council, which eventually ruled in favour of the newspaper.[3] This was not the first time Weidberg had made the news in connection with a complaint about Lord's: at a match earlier in the 1970s, he removed his shirt to enjoy the sunshine, and refused a steward's order to put it back on. He complained to the Marylebone Cricket Club, which ruled that Weidberg was free to go topless so long as he remained motionless.[5]

Laurie Weidberg died in 1986 after a long illness.[2][3]

References

  1. ↑ Weidberg, Laurie (January 1976). "Why I Joined the SPGB". Socialist Standard. Socialist Party of Great Britain. 72 (857).
  2. 1 2 S. C. (June 1986). "Obituaries: L. E. Weidberg and Stan C. Bathurst". Socialist Standard. Socialist Party of Great Britain. 82 (982).
  3. 1 2 3 "Unthinkable? Snow in August". The Guardian. 29 August 2014. Retrieved 2014-08-31.
  4. ↑ "Eccentric memories and summer snow". The Guardian. 3 September 2014. Retrieved 2014-09-03.
  5. ↑ "Lechery rears it head at Lord's". The Age: 26, 23. 6 August 1976. Retrieved 2014-08-31.
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