Fidel T-shirts won’t sell well

After months of division, bitterness and rancour, it was a relief to see the political world finally united following the death of Fidel Castro.

The former Cuban president drew tributes from across the political divide, described by former London mayor Ken Livingstone as a “giant of the 20th century” and by president elect Donald Trump as a brutal, murderous, dictator.

Actually, strike that first paragraph, although it has been at least two weeks since the last serious disagreement between left and right (admittedly the fallout from Trump’s election is likely to hang around for at least another four years).

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn hailed a man who, “for all his flaws”, was a “champion of social justice”. While Corbyn didn’t really elaborate on these flaws, plenty more have been prepared to do it for him.

Trump again: “Castro’s legacy is one of firing squads, theft, unimaginable suffering, poverty and the denial of fundamental human rights”. Clearly some disagreement. Figures like Castro and Che Guevara would have been big heroes to old-school left wingers like Corbyn, who loved that whole bearded, cigarsmoking Us-hating vibe (he’s even stuck with the beard).

The ubiquitous image of Che Guevara’s revolutionary mug became so popular among home-grown ‘rebels’ that Primark actually started selling the T-shirts a few years ago.

Castro must have been secretly resentful of Guevara becoming the poster boy for rebel chic, although Castro made the obvious mistake of stepping up from revolutionary to actual president.

Guevara also died young, executed fomenting revolution in Bolivia, while Castro was 90 and passed away in relative luxury. Not looking good, then, for posthumous T-shirt and poster sales.