Yes, the left can be funny!

Mark Thomas is a one-man wrecking ball to the myth that left-wingers aren't funny. It takes real skill to write a hard-hitting book about worker exploitation and human rights abuse, which is also entertaining, balanced and unpreachy. The humour is pitch black in places, e.g.

'These are for you,' says Luis Eduardo, handing over a bundle of photocopied death threats. Not a traditional parting by any means, but I don't think he had time to get me a presentation tin of regional quality biscuits.

A must-read [he's not paying me or anything - I like the book that much].

He's funnier than John O'Farrell's 'Things Can Only Get Better', which I've just finished reading. This is mainly because O'Farrell's saccharine love-in with New Labour now induces nausea. The first half of the book, which describes his misspent youth as a socialist rebel without a clue, remains absolutely hilarious.

'Dinner parties were obviously right-wing. Apart from being right-wing in themselves they featured a number of right-wing guest appearances such as wine, suits and mangetouts. And concepts like dessert wine and profiteroles were just off the political scale'

Perhaps LabourList could recruit a left-wing comedian to blog. I visited the site this morning and the content remains worthy, turgid and contributes nothing to what's already in the mainstream media.