I came to know Stan first of all through his work on behalf of the Kurds, when he hosted meetings in Parliament and through Liberation. He was always engaging and supportive. We had a mutual contact in Estella Schmid, coordinator for Peace in Kurdistan. I recall attending a conference with Estella held somewhere off the Holloway Road, which I believe was to mark Stan's retirement as an MEP.
I would also occasionally bump into Stan in a bookshop in London and we would enter into conversation. I remember the history book specialist, Unsworths, now long gone, where we got talking about the Kurds and socialist history; at that time, I don't think I knew that he was a member. Later after Eric Hobsbawm passed away, we invited Stan to take over as president of the SHS; he took the role very seriously and always attended committee meetings, unless he had a clash in his diary. He was always extremely supportive of me in my role as secretary and I will always remember his kind words of encouragement. I recall that he often said that I should rejoin the Labour Party, which I only eventually did when Jeremy Corbyn became leader.
I first heard Stan speak many years before all this, when I first came to London. This was at a conference about history and the work of A L Morton held at South Bank Poly, I think, it was around 1986. I remember Stan speaking passionately about the importance of working-class history and issues like the Spanish Civil War. I would imagine Stan had kept a record of this event. I was impressed that a politician could speak with such authority on a topic like history and with a clarity and an unambiguously socialist perspective.
Stan was a unique politician, and as an MP was very different from many who enter Parliament. His article in an edition of New Left Review from the 1960s where he writes about his experiences of Westminster is still well worth reading.
Stan will be very much missed. It was a privilege to know him.
These are my personal memories.
David Morgan
secretary, Socialist History Society