Daily Telegraph – 4 November 1995

Your observation that Mr Justice Sedley formerly sat on the Appeals Committee of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) is, I fear, inaccurate (leader, November 2). According to the Communist Party's monthly magazine, Communist Focus, (issue 14 December 1983), the then Stephen Sedley QC stood for election to the CPGB Appeals Committee but failed to secure the necessary number of votes.

Mr Sedley's biographical details for that election bid noted that he had been a Communist Party member continuously for the past 25 years, having joined in 1958. That was two years after the suppression of the Hungarian uprising. He was also listed as a director of the publishing firm Lawrence & Wishart, habitually used by the Communist Party, and a member of the Theory and Ideology Committee of the CPGB.

Dr JULIAN LEWIS
Director
Policy Research Associates
London SE1