When I got married in 1983, among my wife's kitchen utensils were some smart plastic sieves. We still have them, and I noticed for the first time recently that they were made in the GDR - "Sonja" brand (which still exists). So that idea that consumer goods in socialist eastern Europe were crap was not 100% true it seems. That set me thinking about a few more ideas about the wicked communists four decades ago. They built walls. They split up families and refused to allow family reunions. People were forced to live in cheap utility flats. Well well, there truly was much that could be criticised in those societies, but in the light of what faces people in the free west now, the criticisms don't have quite the sting they had. Unemployment, homelessness, zero hours contracts, massive student debts - wonder if we would still have these if were were competing with societies that didn't have any of them. But we have free speech! Well . . .