Bryan Appleyard is the latest victim of the wrath of Pinter:
Harold and I used to have an amiable enough acquaintanceship until a recent encounter at a party. I had interviewed him and my piece was, for the most part, glowing, though I made the obvious point that his politics were not quite grown-up. This is not because of his actual opinions, but because of the way he holds them - as unarguable truths to which anybody who does not assent is evil and deserving of violent assault. We spoke warmly until he remembered my aside and then said savagely, '"I ought to kick you in the balls." I considered encouraging him on the basis, once the agony had abated, I could get a piece or even a post out of it.
There was a time, as I've already noted, when HP was just as happy to see the Arab states get a "good thrashing". Times change, the temper doesn't...