critics were quick to point out that it may not have been wise to quote from a Communist leader who has been blamed for the famine that cost up to 45 million lives in China during the Great Leap Forward.
You can’t make a joke about Mao’s Little Red Book – Peter Popham, Independent
“[the Conservative Party] is still far from being one more heave from victory. It faces the Long March, not the Great Leap Forward.” – Bernard Ingham, 6/12/2006
“There is a new Cultural Revolution taking place in 21st century China” – Tony Blair, 9/10/2009
“We stand in desperate need of a cultural revolution. Let it start now.” – Ian Flintoff, 30/9/2010
“We may look back on today’s speech as the start of a return to sanity by Labour. As Mao said, every long march begins with a single step. But there is a long way to go and Mr Miliband ducked the chance to make a ‘great leap forward’.” – Tim Shipman (Daily Mail), 10/1/2012
“I think we need to examine, on a case-by-case basis, those powers that Westminster can devolve to the [Welsh] Assembly, rather than making some great leap forward” – David Cameron, 29/3/2013
“Reuters carried an article by former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. He said that the reforms promise to bring another great leap forward in China’s dramatic ascent” – Chinese Embassy press release, 14/9/2013
“Britain has come so far, but the long march to an equal society isn’t over.” – David Cameron, 26/10/2015
“The last politicians that I quoted, who have inspired me, are Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King, Keir Hardie – they’re the ones I tend to quote. But that’s my choice. I haven’t quoted a Communist before and I have no intention of doing so in the future.” – Chuka Umunna
Workers’ Playtime 
One Comment
I was busy helping a friend move house, so I missed all this in “real time” – when I finally found an actual description of what JMD had said/done vs. all the hysterical stuff, well it really made me despair over the media environment.