Just heard he has died.
I've never been a labour party supporter but always respected him as someone who genuinely liked and followed football long before it was trendy or the "thing to do".
Sure he was at the Valley a few times to watch Plymouth and remember he wrote a poem about preferring Goodison to Anfield.
0
Comments
http://www.charltonlife.com/forum/comments.php?DiscussionID=32784&page=1#Item_1
He liked a cardigan as well didnt he Henry ?
I have great affection for him, he was a lovely man.
Hardly disrespectful....the man has had a lot worse written about him and it was a simple pun. Christ like walking on eggshells.
Lost: One sense of humour. If found please return to R C Trotter : - )
Will probably be found in the same place as your sense of perspective ;0-)
I don't think he should ever have been leader of the Labour party or that he would have been a successful Prime Minister, but the reason he was elected leader is that he was the only person sufficiently acceptable to left and right to hold the party together in the early 1980s. That says something about him in itself.
He'll be remembered with huge affection in many quarters.
Had the honour of accompanying him to football once, but I also have a very personal reason for being hugely grateful to him. In 1985 I was involved in a bitter legal dispute with John Silkin and Donald Bruce, and MF personally negotiated a settlement between us that kept the case out of the courts and under which all costs were waived.
Last saw him two and a half years ago at Tribune's 70th birthday party. As I write I am looking at a wonderful photo taken that night of seven different Tribune editors spanning the paper's history, including MF and myself - the picture only spoilt by Gordon Brown's presence as guest of honour at the party!
He remained a militant atheist all his life, so he would be utterly insulted by the suggestion that he's now with the angels. But the world is certainly a poorer place without him.
Always thought he had integrity and intelligence. Rare to see those combined attributes in current politicians it would seem.
I loved Foot but, in all reality, he was never going to be Prime Minister, simply because he was Labour Leader at the lowest point of their modern history.
I remember a speech he made in closing the debate of no confidence at the end of the Callaghan Govt. They were trialling audio recordings of the House at the time so it was recorded and is there for posterity. Despite the gravity of the situation for the Labour Govt and tension all around, he spoke with such quality of wit that friend and foe alike were lifted by the power of his address.
It is a great sadness that sound bite politics in a 24/7 news world has done for the type of politician of which he was master.
Rest in peace Michael. The nation is the poorer for your passing.
Or perhaps politicians had to adapt to the consequences of technology, like everyone else.
Incidentally, I was surprised to learn that Goonerhater is an enthusiast for the EU, which of course is one of the things Michael Foot was against, along with appeasement before the Second World War.
I just make the point that politics can make strange bedfellows and left/right labels are not always an adequate guide.
Of course that is another way of looking at it. Change happens for good or bad. We have to move on.
I think though, those of us (you included) who lived through his time at the centre of politics in this country should be allowed a tear and a wistful sigh at the demise of a great political figure who strode the stage and held us all in the palm of his hand whether we agreed with him or not, and the like of whom we will never see again precisely because things have moved on.
RIP
One of those politicians who'se heart was in the right place and someone who is needed in a parliasmentary democracy. I'd never trust him as a minister/PM, but the sort of bloke who would treat being an MP as an honour and respect it, plus he was constructively critical of both his side and the oppo.