I dedicate this week’s column to the late Terry Bristowe – a councillor, trade unionist, socialist and Barnsley legend.

When it came to public speaking, Terry was the master, and in political debate he was fearsome.

Moreover, he could sing like Mario Lanza, and even though he wasn’t particularly big, he could ‘handle himself’.

My father once said: “If you want to be an authentic socialist, Ronnie, you should use Terry Bristowe as your model. He’s one of our union men at Dodworth Colliery and he walks on water.”

I was eager to find out more, so I asked some of my socialist friends about Terry and this is one of the many tales they told me.

It’s all hearsay, but my sources were eye-witnesses (two with university degrees) whom I would trust with my life…

It was Monday morning and six socialists from Barnsley were in Dewsbury Magistrates’ Court after being charged with protesting against a march by the National Front.

They were all scared stiff apart from Terry who seemed supremely self-confident.

One by one, the defendants pleaded not guilty, and then shortly after the police’s evidence was presented, the magistrate gave each of them a brief opportunity to speak their minds.

When none felt confident enough to respond, the magistrate pronounced them all guilty as charged.

However, Terry Bristowe’s case was the last to be heard and the yawning JP was shocked when Terry accepted the offer to speak.

This was completely unexpected and now everyone in court dropped everything to pay close attention. There was a long pause while Terry stood and rolled up his shirt sleeves like a bare-knuckle fighter waiting for the bell.

When his listeners finally fell silent he began to harangue them like no court had ever been harangued before.

“Your honour, ladies and gentlemen. It’s not many years since 370,000 British citizens sacrificed their lives fighting Hitler’s fascist scum.

“That’s 370,000 of our own people, dead! Another 87,000 Indian soldiers also lost their lives in the defence of OUR country and its empire.

“And yet today, only 25 short years after the end of the conflict, we allow Hitler’s thugs to march like storm troopers through our fine cities, flaunting their swastikas and smashing the heads of the Asian community simply because of their colour.

“The real crime here, your honour, is not that we, as British workers, stood up to them last Saturday. Oh no. The real crime is that the Nazis were given police protection while we face prosecution.”

The magistrate thought Terry had finished and was just about to speak when…

“In 1945, your honour (now raising his voice and gesticulating furiously) those in the British and Commonwealth Armed Forces were hailed as war heroes but today any worker trying to prevent the Nazis from dominating the streets of Britain is criminalised.

“Well, I want the whole world to know, loud and clear, that I’m definitely NOT sorry for demonstrating against the far right.

“I’m a proud British coalminer and I’m glad to have confronted the supremacists and their sick ideology.

“And if, in 30 years’ time, my grandchildren ask what I did to stop the Nazis, I’ll tell them straight (now Terry begins stabbing the air with his index finger) that despite harassment from the British state, I fought them in the streets with all my might.”

He went on, saying, to one of the police officers who’d just given testimony: “And thar can stop looking down at thi feet.

“Mr Bristowe, please!” shouted the Justice of the Peace.

“Well, look at them bobbies, your honour. They swear on the Bible to tell the truth and both of ‘em put together don’t make one good ‘un!”

“Mr Bristowe! That’s enough! I’ll not tell you again!”

Then Terry’s powerful voice began to trail off, and just before he sat down he muttered a half-hearted apology: “I do beg your pardon, your honour, but all this is too daft to laugh at.”

After a brief hiatus, the courtroom suddenly burst into deafening applause and even the magistrate and his professional adviser found it hard not to join in.

When order was finally restored, the case against Terry was dismissed. But for the other five defendants, the guilty verdicts remained the same and they all left court with a criminal record.

When I first heard this tale I quickly realised that my father was spot on: Terry Bristowe did, indeed, ‘walk on water’.