The decline and collapse makes little sense if seen in isolation. This was a world-wide crisis, one that perhaps affected European communist parties most dramatically, but which was not limited to them. Given the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of socialism in Eastern Europe, could the CPGB have maintained its numbers and influence? I can't see how. I joined in 1962, and for me the watershed was in 1968. Before then, there were disagreements, but they were minor in the face of a real sense of solidarity (international and inner party). After Czechoslovakia, I doubt that any leadership could have held the party together, and the disagreements meant that inner-party struggle and factionalism seriously impacted on campaigning work. A pro-Euro or pro-Soviet-invasion leadership could only have created a united party by mass expulsions, which would have left a fundamentally weakened party.