Britain’s last elected communist official has retired from office.
Willie Clarke, 80, was first elected as a councillor in Fife in May 1973.
11 other communist candidates won seats alongside Willie in the mining town of Ballingry – but in the 43 years since the popularity of the party has dramatically waned.
In that time the US lost its battle with communists in Vietnam, the Berlin Wall has fallen and Obama has met with the Cuban president to end the decades-long trade embargo.
Mr Clarke had been due to chair his final committee meeting on Wednesday but was unable to attend.
He said: “It has been a hard decision to make.
“I had hoped to see things through to the council elections next May, but over the past few months one or two problems have made it difficult to be able to be as committed as I want to be to this very important job.
In his time on the council Mr Clarke has suffered from a bout of cancer – which has taken his left ear, and affected his speech.
He went on: “Also my wife Betty has not been well and she has been a key part of my personal team, answering the door and the phone and being able to provide a key link with the public.
“So it is time to call it a day. But I will not be going away completely. While I do not feel up to being able to fulfill the role as a councillor I intend to continue to work with the various community groups I am on.
Discussing the fact that there will now be no communist officials in the UK, he said: “It is sad that nobody’s following on, but I still hope that the movement picks up strength.”
Mr Clarke even spent weeks at a time in Moscow during the height of the Cold War – holidays that were likely to raise the eyebrows of the tightly-wound security services of the day.
Describing the “holidays” he took in the capital of the USSR he said: “I saw two or three things that I was surprised by, but I was delighted to go.”