Many politicians and pundits abandoned socialism and the Labour party in the 1970s, but there were few rightward shifts of allegiance more dramatic than that of Paul Johnson, the journalist and author, who has died aged 94. As a young man, Johnson stood on the left of the Labour party, made Aneurin Bevan the first object of his hero-worship, hymned the French rebels of 1968, and wrote that Tories were “atrophied Englishmen … on occasions, endearing – but liable to turn very nasty at short notice”.
Later he became an ardent supporter of Margaret Thatcher, and could sometimes turn nasty himself. A remarkably fluent and prolific writer, Johnson showed his vituperative gifts on the left before putting them at the highly paid service of Tory tabloids. In calmer mode, he was a reflective, elegiac and often moving writer about art, architecture and the English landscape.
