How I’ve Tried to Change the World by Alexei Sayle review – does protest make a difference?
The comedian charts his life in demos from 1960s Liverpool to 2020s London in this fiery and addictive book At 74, the comedian Alexei Sayle is approaching a dangerous phase for veteran British leftists: becoming a national treasure. Once described by special branch, in a surveillance file gleefully quoted in this memoir, as an “intellectual thug” who made “foul-mouthed comments about the royal family”, Sayle now app
Open original article- Ledger record
- #933
- First seen
- 20 Aug 2026, 06:02 UTC
- Last checked
- 21 Aug 2026, 10:34 UTC
- Version history
- 1 version
- Current fingerprint
3a1a39c14b16...b3b1a4
Publisher layer
Recorded article metadata
- Publisher
- The Guardian
- Country
- England / United Kingdom
- Source published
- 20 Aug 2026, 06:00 UTC
- Source updated
- No update timestamp supplied
- Byline
- Andy Beckett
- Section
- Alexei Sayle
The comedian charts his life in demos from 1960s Liverpool to 2020s London in this fiery and addictive book At 74, the comedian Alexei Sayle is approaching a dangerous phase for veteran British leftists: becoming a national treasure. Once described by special branch, in a surveillance file gleefully quoted in this memoir, as an “intellectual thug” who made “foul-mouthed comments about the royal family”, Sayle now app
Change layer
Observed version timeline
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1
How I’ve Tried to Change the World by Alexei Sayle review – does protest make a difference?
The comedian charts his life in demos from 1960s Liverpool to 2020s London in this fiery and addictive book At 74, the comedian Alexei Sayle is approaching a dangerous phase for veteran British leftists: becoming a national treasure. Once described by special branch, in a surveillance file gleefully quoted in this memoir, as an “intellectual thug” who made “foul-mouthed comments about the royal family”, Sayle now app
Changed fieldstitlebylinedescriptionTextcontentTextsourcePublishedAtsourceUpdatedAtsectionimageUrltags- Version SHA-256
3a1a39c14b16...b3b1a4- Capture SHA-256
c26115c65a0b...254df3
Interpretation layer
Labels with declared origins
Publisher categories are copied from source metadata. Machine signals report observable wording or format and do not determine truth, intent, ethics, or wrongdoing.
- machine content-type Analysis or opinion observable-rules-v1 / 70% rule confidence
- machine language-signal Investigation language observable-rules-v1 / 65% rule confidence
- publisher category Alexei Sayle rss-category
- publisher category Autobiography and memoir rss-category
- publisher category Books rss-category
- publisher category Culture rss-category
- publisher category Politics books rss-category
Public response layer
Reception snapshots
Comment counts and samples remain absent until a lawful, source-specific capture method is reviewed. Absence is recorded instead of estimated.
Evidence layer
Capture provenance
- Capture ID
- #353
- Observed
- 20 Aug 2026, 06:02 UTC
- HTTP result
- 200 / parsed
- Raw payload
- 458,583 bytes, private gzip evidence
- Collector
- news-ledger/0.1
- Public boundary
- metadata and excerpt