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...mentioned earlier in the thread already, but [url= http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/04032010/63/pilgrims-pay-tribute-foot.html ]he was one of our best Argyle fans too.[/url] I feel the only way for the FA to recognise and remember his contribution to the Green Army (he was on the board for a few years and all) is to give them a season in the premiership. 😀
Wasn't he a bit of an HG Wells scholar as well?.
WK - Yes he was, and Swift and Bertrand Russell and a few others. There is no disagreement that he was a man of extraordinary talents and deeply held views.
I listened to his "Last Word" obituary on Radio 4 this evening and it brought a tear to my eye.
In an age when the term "socialist" has become wholly perjorative, it gives me strength to reflect on the life of a truly great man who never deviated from his principles of compassion and fairness. He may well have been the first victim of the modern age of politics where one is judged by what one looks like rather than what one has to say. I was a teenager when the Gang of Four split the Labour vote in 1983 and I didn't understand the significance of the rift at the time. Nearly three decades later his oratory abilities are to be admired and I hope that his legacy is a world where the "inveterate peacemongers" prevail.
was he the last of the great orators, killed off by the sound byte hunger of the media? Or the icon of the "Loony Left" image that nearly killed off his party?
Well, he was too centrist (for the time!) for the Militant tendency but he certainly had the Loony Left image thrust upon him and either didn't know or care how to correct it, and preferred to explain his ideas and beliefs instead. In this respect, he displayed a great deal of integrity but also showed poor judgment in politicking and winning elections that might actually have let him put his ideas into practice.
Bumped into him once at Westminster tube station, he was very apologetic and wished me a good day, a great man imo when Tony Benn goes it will be the end of an era, a time when politicians seemed to have honesty and integrity, even if you disagree with the thinking you could resspect them. I dont think you can say that now.
Pigface, Tony Benn has very intelligently reinvented himself as everyone's favourite grandfather.
What everyone seems to forget is that he was one of the people largely responsible for the rift between the hard left and moderate wings of the real Labour Party, which made them unelectable for a generation and allowed that bloody woman and her disgusting cronies into power.
Michael Foot's true legacy is that he managed to keep both factions of the party together, which, despite a few deserters meant that there still [b]was[/b] a Labour Party when John Smith took over after Kinnock had drunk deeply from his own poisoned chalice.
There is a brilliant excerpt from one of his speeches on iPlayer from Radio 4 this week:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00r3423/Pick_of_the_Week_07_03_2010/
Starts around 27:40.
Very, very funny.
Wonder what he did with all the KGB money? Supose that went to continually support Tribune.
mt - Member
Wonder what he did with all the KGB money? Supose that went to continually support Tribune.
Clearly there is no evidence or even a suggestion that he took anything from anyone. However, had he had a relationship with the Communist block it would have been born of the same idealism that saw many young men of his generation sign up with the communists as the only people standing up against facism prior to WW2. Like most of them it would have been idealsim not money that attracted them to do it.
In my book its a great shame there weren't more like him.
Have a look in Olag Gordievsky's book. It reckons he was being paid by the KGB, from the late 40's till the early 70's when Foot became a cabinet member. His KGB name was Boot? Perhaps Stalin had a sense of humour. The Sunday Times was sued by him and he won but he did not try and sue the book publisher or Gordievsky. I do agree though that he was an honerable man but does not mean that I agree with the way he looked at the world or did what he thought was right. The above is matter of record and like many a committed person did things that would sometimes suprise us. On the face of it you would think that his close association with Lord Beverbrooke looks very odd given his political views.
Do agree that more principaled politicians of all types are needed.