Dad was a communist

Tom Scott has done an extended profile of the PM. Some of it has been covered in other profiles, but one part grabbed my attention:

George, John Key’s dad, was an idealistic young Englishman who, according to family lore, volunteered to fight in the Spanish Civil War for the Republican army against the forces of General Franco who were supported by Nazi Germany. …

When George Key made his decision to fight he was barely into his 20s.

He saw something horrendous coming. He could have stood on street corners distributing shrill pamphlets.

Instead, he left his first wife and a baby son, John Key’s elder half-brother, behind to take up arms in a foreign land. …

So where did George Key’s zeal come from? Most of the members of the International Brigade he joined were members of the Communist Party. John Key’s dad, who spoke fluent Russian, was almost certainly a Marxist.

I’m quite amused by the thought of the capitalist money trader and the centre-right Prime Minister being the son of a communist!

Maybe there is hope for the children of certain Green MPs 🙂

The full article is an interesting read – worth taking the time to wade through.