The Ralph Miliband Lecture has been no stranger to some rather explosive characters recently. Readers will remember how in 2010 Ed’s mate at the LSE David Held invited Saif Gaddafi, the Butcherer of Bengazi to be, to speak as a “representative of the Miliband program”. Held buttering Saif up as a great reformer and humanitarian will surely go down as one of the most ill-fated welcomes of all time:

Almost as lavish as Ed’s own praise for the discredited lecture program:

Surely no self-respecting defender of the downtrodden would want to follow in the footsteps of Gaddafi?

This year’s Ralph Miliband programme is being headlined next week by Len McCluskey. The former Unite union baron will presumably be explaining how the general strike would work as he eulogises about the Labour leader’s late Marxist father. And just to round things off the following week? Laurie Penny will be sharing her pearls of wisdom. The whole thing has about as much credibility these days as the Orwell Prize…