I received an email a little earlier today alerting me to the sad news that Michael Foot had died. Michael Foot was the leader of the Labour party just as I started to have an awareness of and interest in politics.At the time my impression of him was dictated by a fairly cruel media portrayal and Labour's dismal result of the 1983 General Election. Over time I came to realise that Michael Foot was a deeply principled man, a great orator and overwhelmed by the radical change that Conservatives under Margret Thatcher embarked upon.
I feel moved to write a haiku for him to add to my occasional series.
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Michael Foot is gone
Integrity to the last
But poor taste in clothes
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2 comments:
I've always regarded him as a failure. He led the Labour Party when it split in two, and he was left in the part that had the policies that made it unelectable. It took Kinnock, Smith, and Blair 14 years to undo the damage brought about by the most extreme times of Old Labour.
A good politician would have kept his party together, would have realistic policies, and would have defeated the Conservatives in 1983.
But for the next week we are going to hear nothing but praise for the man who was under the thumb of the hard-left and a great relief for the Conservatives.
Jimmy
Your point is a fair one. It's the classic political conundrum.
We all admire politicians of great principle but they more often than not fail.
Pragmatic politicians tend not to loved but get things done.
So in politics you have to ask the question "what do I want to achieve, cross-party admiration or real change?"
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