The philosophy of Karl Marx ... is really an extreme version of High Victorian liberalism

The philosophy of Karl Marx ... is really an extreme version of High Victorian liberalism: the fact of the worldwide British Empire created the fantasy of the worldwide Socialist Revolution.

J. Hawes, cited in J. Law. 'as old as the hills', SF 84 (2024), 40

I have. With icing for his beard. They were fantastic.

One of the top-selling items in Highgate's small gift shops in a cookie-cutter in the shape of Karl Marx. 'Before we had the cookie-cutter, we sold lots of The Communist Manifesto,' Nick Powell, the visitor experience manager, told me. 'The sales of those have dropped off dramatically.'
'Did you have to think carefully,' I asked 'whether it was right to stock the cookie-cutters?'
'Do you mean are we dishonouring Marx by selling these things?'
'Yes,' I said. 'By bringing capitalism to bear upon his image.'
Powell laughed. He seemed to think the question absurdly po-faced, and perhaps it was. So I tried another: Have you ever made any Marx cookies yourself?'
'I have,' he said nodding. 'With icing for his beard. They were fantastic.'  

P. Ross,  A tomb with a view (2020), 117

This view was not confined to British proconsuls. Karl Marx shared it too.

In truth, the British were  in a permanent dither about how best to raise the revenue on which their Raj depended. They began with, and never really lost, a sentimental attachment to the idea of Indian village life. As Sir Charles Metcalfe famously put it: '... Hindoo, Patan, Mughal, Mahratta, Sikh, English, all are masters in turn, but the village communities remain the same.' This view was not confined to British proconsuls. Karl Marx shared it too.

F. Mount,  The tears of the Rajas (2015), 189