Michael Foot

Michael Foot died this week at the ripe old age of 96 – a Labour politician and one time leader of the party who led them to a disastrous election defeat in 1984. That would not have been difficult given that Margaret Thatcher and the Conservative Party were riding on the crest of the wave following the defeat of Argentina in the Falklands. However I have to ask myself if he would have done any better if the Falklands dispute had never happened: I doubt it.

Tributes have poured in since the man’s death from people of all political persuasions:

Passionate
Intellectual
Honest
Kindly
Brilliant orator
Idealist

You name it, he’s done it or so they say, but did he? I don’t believe so for his impact on this world was bugger all. I did not know him personally but I have seen him speak many times and read some of the things he had written. So let us look at just a few things.

Brilliant orator? Oh for sure he could speak well and at length. His speeches were quite fluid and dotted with a gentle humour that would make anyone smile. However, they were hardly captivating or inspiring. Sure they got his supporters clapping but would they have got them or me out of bed early on a frosty morning? No.

Leadership? He showed no signs of leadership whatsoever, only rising to be the Leader of the Labour Party in order to fill a vacuum. No visible evidence of an ability to get people to do that little bit extra. And how could you possibly campaign for unilateral disarmament at a time when the USA and USSR had enough missiles to destroy the planet. If the West has disarmed, the tanks of Russia would have been rolling across the north German plains the very next day. MAD may have seemed daft but it kept the peace.

Some have commented on the fact that he did not enlist for WWII, preferring to spend his time in his London flat reading and writing. Others have said that he may have been a ‘conscientious objector’; it is possible. He may have been unfit to enlist but we have never had any details. I don’t know the facts here but I do know that my grandfather managed to enlist with lousy lungs and only got thrown out when they found he had understated his age.

Note however the words, ‘London flat,’ and the fact that he is reported to have died in his ‘Hampstead villa.’ Now even a box room in Hampstead would cost a small fortune so that tells you that he was well off. Hardly surprising since him and his equally left wing brothers were the children of a well heeled solicitor from Plymouth. So, he’s just one of many middle class socialists that have never experienced the hardship of the working class but pretend to empathise with it.

I won’t miss him and I doubt if many will given a week.