Michael Foot 1913-2010

Just heard the news. In spite of his age I am rather shocked to hear this. He was always this frail old man who was always there!
I first recall hearing about him around the 83 general election, when I told my family that I wanted Margaret Thatcher to win, rather than Michael Foot, as Foot looked like an angry old man. It was the only time I ever wanted the Tories to win a general election and whilst I feel bad about my naive primary school opinion, I have never felt he was Prime Ministerial material.
However he was a great Parliamentarian, loved by all sides of the House of Commons and was also a first class journalist. A blogpost does no justice to all of this, but he certainly bestrode 20th Century politics and was the last VIP left who knew H.G. Wells and fought as a Candidate in the 35 general election.
I met him very briefly at the 2003 Labour Party Conference. He wad especially frail by then, but he was still alert and was clearly much loved by activists across the Labour Party. We shall miss him.

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