Milne was so proud of his 2002 review that he repeated the same arguments, indeed repeated whole chunks word for word, in another Guardian piece in 2006. This time those he accused of distorting history were Jung Chang and Jon Halliday for their critically-acclaimed biography of Mao, and the Council of Europe for condemning the crimes of Communist regimes: "For all its brutalities and failures, Communism in the Soviet Union, eastern Europe and elsewhere delivered rapid industrialisation, mass education, job security and huge advances in social and gender equality."

Milne's columns are fixated with blaming the US and its subalterns the UK and Israel for all the ills of the world. Within two days of 9/11 he managed to condemn the US for bringing the attacks upon itself: "It has become painfully clear that most Americans simply don't get it...any glimmer of recognition of why people might have been driven to carry out such atrocities, sacrificing their own lives in the process...seems   almost entirely absent."

Where does this perspective come from? Earlier this year, Milne addressed a public meeting in London on the subject of "What is Imperialism?" His answer: "Under modern capitalism, imperialism in essence is the use of force and coercion in all its forms ... to extort profits above what can be obtained through ordinary commercial exchange." His analysis is a rather old one: it is that of Lenin in his 1916 pamphlet Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism. From this, all of Milne's analysis flows — all those opposing US imperialism and "barbarism in the service of Western corporate power" are to be supported. "Resistance" — in Afghanistan, Iraq, Israel — is being mobilised through Islam; Hugo Chávez is the great hope for South America; even China is praised as a bulwark against US power.  Milne has a soft spot for China: its economic reform "echoes but goes well beyond the concessions to capitalism in the Soviet new economic policy of the 1920s .. the leadership's attempt to reduce inequality, move back towards freer health and education, improve conditions for migrant workers ... are seen by some ... as signs of a resumption of reform scoialism". In Milne's world, those who still claim to espouse Lenin must be on the right side of history.