John Prescott RIP

[Zonder]

Whatever your political leaning, it's a sad day for politics. Sad to hear Gordon Brown just now on radio 4 describe him as a Colossus then to hear that he died in a care home with Alzheimer's. Hard to imagine.
Still remembered who people were to the end and kept his warmth and friendliness.

Was there a MN RIP thread for Thatcher? I wasn't on MN in 2013, but I had a quick search. There were lots of threads discussing her, but I couldn't find a specific RIP one.

Hardly comparable - there was/is a significant amount of vitriol aimed at her after her passing.

Starmer removed her portrait when he took office in No.10

Hugely disrespectful.

He manages to be respectful

The man who threw an egg and became involved in a punch-up with John Prescott, Craig Evans, has told the Press Association he had "no regrets", adding that his thoughts were with the late politician's loved ones

Fair play to him.

I've been reading about some of his achievements as an MP. Doesn't come across as a baboon to me. He was portrayed that way by some parts of the media. He sounds like a principled man who worked hard to achieve things he believed in, such as Kyoto.

Buffoon not baboon 😆

I think Angela Rayner gets similar treatment to Prescott. A lot of snobbery at play.

I think some people are being disingenuous on this thread.
People criticise Margaret Thatcher for her policies. I have not read comments criticising Prescott's policies.

Instead there are comments criticising him for playing croquet, for having an affair that his wife forgave him for, for punching someone when he was attacked (an egg hitting you is hard and he won't have realised straight away it was an egg and not a stone), and a made up terrible rumour about his wife's son. That last one is unforgiveable. These are real people.

When there was a thread after Thatcher's death, someone commented about her behaviour to her son. They were rightly universally condemned and their comments were deleted. They may have been banned.

I did not agree with all of Prescott's policies and was not a fan, but I am saddened at how people are behaving here.

I agree. The snobbery towards her is off the scale.
I still can't get over the comment on this thread laughing at Prescott for playing croquet. Some people are still very keen in our society to try and keep others down. If he was going to watch the football presumably that would be acceptable.

Why is it disrespectful to remove a Prime Ministers portrait from his own office? I doubt whoever the next Conservative Prime Minister is will want a portrait of Starmer in his office.
The criticisms of Thatcher were of her policies. I am a Conservative, but the type she would have called wet. I understand the anger towards her because she destroyed the small town I lived in with her economic policies causing sky high unemployment and poverty. This affected real people like me. And it led to people like myself moving far away from all of my family to get work. Which is fine when you are single, but harder when you have children and all your family are an overnight stay away.

You don't have to pretend anything.
You could, however, choose not to say anything at all, rather than be horrible on a RIP thread.

No, football apparently isn’t acceptable. People don’t like Starmer doing it.
The rule is - if a Labour politician is doing it, it’s wrong and shows they are out of touch/champagne socialist/thick/lacking in class. Tories can do whatever they want.

I personally do not have an issue if people criticised his policies respectfully e.g. I am sorry for those who have lost a loved one, but I did not agree with x, y and z.

The Bluesky echo chamber is that way…

who do you think you are? Intolerant left much?

RIP 2 Jags my old friend

He was a jolly decent cove. RIP John Prescott.

RIP threads are for people who respected or perhaps knew/met the deceased to say a few kind words.

But it does seem that for some posters, its a thread to attack that person, even suggesting they shouldn't have played croquet.

Should i happen to out live John Major or Michael Heseltine, i would either not comment at all or say something nice about them.

Because thats how i was bought up, not dragged up in the gutter.

@cardibach I missed that some people had criticised Starmer for liking football. That is crazy. The only hobbies I would ever criticise anyone for are any that harm people. Like Mike Tindall attending a dwarf throwing competition.

In fairness, it’s more about allowing the club to upgrade his season ticket to a box so it’s easier for their security. But he shouldn’t be doing it apparently.

Ah, playing the old victim card.

I did not know that. But I can see why they upgraded him.

Rayner got stick for going to the opera IIRC. Starmer got stick for not joining a golf club. It's all so petty.

One contemporaneous example.

Margaret Thatcher and the Misogynistic Protest
I am deeply disturbed by the volume of misogynistic vitriol being spouted by certain members of the British public in the wake of Margaret Thatcher's death. What disturbs me the most is not that people are aggressively disagreeing with her politics, but that people are genuinely rejoicing at the death of another person - a mother and a grandmother.
Huff Post

@EverythingAllatOnceAllTheTime There is no link. But I assume this article was about the woman who organised Ding Dong the Witch is Dead party? She was widely condemned across all media and social media. You always get outliers.

He was a friend of our family. A genuinely lovely man who was a true politician. Deeply believing in his cause. Passionate

I wasn’t on MN in 2013 so I have no idea if that was the case. I felt equally sad that her life ended with dementia. I wouldn’t wish that on anyone.