If it was a 'trend', there aren't many enduring examples of young middle-class English putting their money where their mouth was and living in dire poverty amongst the working class in Wigan, London and Pais, honestly reporting what they found, not to mention putting his life on the line to fight for what he believed in Spain. How many young privileged Starmerites would do anything remotely uncomfortable for themselves in the same way these days? His hatred for Stalinism was understandable, to say the least, given the persecution, tyranny and counter-revolutionary purges he witnessed within the anti-fascist forces of Catalonia.