British Communist Dreams Crushed in Budapest

It was a fine autumn day on Sunday November 4 1956, Max Morris remembers, when the British Communist party executive committee convened for a highly charged session. The news from Budapest was getting worse. Soviet forces were moving into the city, using massive T54 tanks to shell rebel strongholds. The party paper, the Daily Worker, had been sticking to the official line about "counter-revolution" and "fascist activities". But disquiet was growing.
In Trafalgar Square, a few minutes from CP headquarters in King Street, Covent Garden, thousands were gathering to demonstrate against the Anglo-French attack on Egypt. The RAF had already bombed Cairo and the crowds were chanting "law not war" - later surging down Whitehall into earshot of Anthony Eden in Downing Street. The Port Said landings were just hours away.