Ex Labour Leader Michael Foot Dies

[Morningside]

http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Politics/Michael-...

From what I remember he was quite hopeless.

Edited by Morningside on Wednesday 3rd March 12:26

[whitechief]

Blimey, I'd assumed he'd popped it years ago.

[johnfm]

No longer a living leg end.

[mattviatura]

Didn't Michael Foot want to unilaterally disarm in the 1980s, just before the USSR collapsed? Let's wait for the BBC tributes....

Ahem. edited because Michael Fish is a weatherman.

Edited by mattviatura on Wednesday 3rd March 12:39

[Jezza30]

Funnily enough recently met a member of the (ex) Conservative cabinet who was in parliament during the time of Micheal Foot.
A suprise to me, he described Foot as an honorable man, and particulally during the miners strike, was keen to work with the Tories to resolve the problem. The reason this didnt happen was the 'up and coming' Kinnock who was determined to undermine Foot and side with Scargil.

[johnfm]

He kicked the bucket?

[whitechief]

mattviatura said:

Didn't Michael Fish want to unilaterally disarm in the 1980s, just before the USSR collapsed? Let's wait for the BBC tributes....

No, but he fked up a weather forecast in 1987.

[mattviatura]

whitechief said:

mattviatura said:

Didn't Michael Fish want to unilaterally disarm in the 1980s, just before the USSR collapsed? Let's wait for the BBC tributes....

No, but he fked up a weather forecast in 1987.

Bugger.

[vetteheadracer]

Sun Headline......."One Foot in the Grave"?

[dcb]

Morningside said:

From what I remember he was quite hopeless.

At what ?

I admire him as an academic, intellectual and book writer,
but his hard left politics were outside the mainstream then, and
look somewhat extreme now.

I agree with Denis Thatcher, that MF was in the wrong job
as party leader and probably would have been much happier
pottering about the bookshops of Hampstead, publishing an
occasional book and getting good reviews in the Guardian.

96 is a good innings, though. Didn't his son Paul Foot
( of Private Eye fame) predecease him ?

[dirkgently]

I did not agree with his politics, but he had more conviction than all of the current stes put together.

[maddog993]

dcb said:

I admire him as an academic, intellectual and book writer,
but his hard left politics were outside the mainstream then, and
look somewhat extreme now.

I agree with Denis Thatcher, that MF was in the wrong job
as party leader and probably would have been much happier
pottering about the bookshops of Hampstead, publishing an
occasional book and getting good reviews in the Guardian.

he was fundamentally a decent bloke; the current crop of s on all sides could learn a thing or two from him about honesty & integrity.

[madala]

....I didn't like his politics or policies but I certainly respected him not like the present piece of shoite that leads the Labour Party and runs the country now.....

RIP.

[Zod]

He came across as a decent man, but onw who was hopelessly wrong about everything that mattered, unlike Brown who is not a decent man, but is hopelessly wrong about everything that matters.

[Don]

Foot was an idealistic fool. He would have made a lousy Prime Minister and, thankfully, had no chance. I am sure that on a personal level he was a perfectly nice chap, mind you.

Is anyone else wondering how New Labour will spin this to their electoral advantage?

[essayer]

Don said:

Foot was an idealistic fool. He would have made a lousy Prime Minister and, thankfully, had no chance. I am sure that on a personal level he was a perfectly nice chap, mind you.

Is anyone else wondering how New Labour will spin this to their electoral advantage?

Intentionally bumped off to deflect from Harman's terrible PMQ performance.

[Dr Phibes]

As said before cannot abide his political views but at least he was a conviction politician not in it for the cash and fame

[Jasandjules]

Dr Phibes said:

As said before cannot abide his political views but at least he was a conviction politician not in it for the cash and fame

That is fair enough, and I agree. Though I cannot recall if he wasn't rather wealthy already (I may have him confused with another however).

[FourWheelDrift]

Don said:

Foot was an idealistic fool. He would have made a lousy Prime Minister and, thankfully, had no chance. I am sure that on a personal level he was a perfectly nice chap, mind you.

He was called a good orator, but whenever I have seen him in film he is shouting into a microphone and waving his arms about. Always reminded me of a certain German National Socialist.

[maddog993]

FourWheelDrift said:

He was called a good orator, but whenever I have seen him in film he is shouting into a microphone and waving his arms about. Always reminded me of a certain German National Socialist.

Unlike Uncle Adolf, he was passionate but utterly without malice. (though he was tasked with taking out Nazi sympathiser/collaborator Lord Halifax should the Nazis have invaded Britain)