Michael Foot has died, aged 96.

[policywonk]

RIP. He was a good man.

does seem like the end of an era doesn't it. He could have taught the media-savvy, leering politicians of today a thing or two. RIP.

His views on many things were arguably wrong and he broke the Labour party in the 80s.

But on the other hand he did believe in what he was doing and clearly wasn't just saying what he thought would get him elected. So very different to the politicians of today.

Badgers I don't agree that he broke the party in the 80s. I think Scargill had more than a hand in that but this is not the place.

I'm very sad that he's died. He was an amazing man of deeply held beliefs and conviction. He fought for fairness.

yes the jury is still very much out on this one badgers. so many many other suspects; millitant, SDP, the coincidence of the end of the Falklands war with coming out of the recession I could go on and on.

witch now goes to bed remembering that she thought the 83 election was lost because the manifesto was too right wing!

but it is so depressing that politics has got room for a unelectable buffoon like b. johnson (however charming, funny and intelectual) but would not have a place for a kind, funny wise man like micheal foot

Perhaps the wind will swing back. I think people are getting tired of over-smooth politicians.

If you look at the likes of Foot and even Enoch Powell (yes, I mean Enoch Powell: there's more to him than rivers of blood) there's a much more interesting intellectual hinterground.

We are the poorer for this not being fashionable.

I think one of the issues is the rise of "professional politics"- i.e. more people now view "politics" as a life long career rather than public service. As a result their priority is to remain electable rather than promote their own principles.

Politicians like Michael Foot, Tony Benn and Margaret Thatcher had closely held principles which formed the platform for which they sought election- they didnt just bend to popular opinion/ cheap vote winners.

It's pretty sad now that we just don't get this clash of ideologies. I think better policy emerges from it. Once the parties merge in the middle you just get a lot of reinforcement of error.

Oh Im feel so very very sad. A real conviction politician who cared about people and principles not appearances.

We need more like him .

The whole donkey jacket thing was and is really in bad taste in my opinion. I realise it wasn't really a proper donkey jacket, but why should it matter if it was. Foot dedicated his life to a movement that aims to improve the lot of working people, the sort of people that in those days went to work every day in donkey jackets, the same sort of working people that gave their lives during the second world war.

How anyone could criticize Foot for not being respectful is beyond me, especially considering his anti-appeasement stance and his publications that helped bring down the useless Tory government of the time and replace it with the Churchill led coalition. He was also a member of the Home Guard etc.

And lets not forget that it was the right wing press (and the Black Shirt supporting Daily Mail among them) that were the most vociferous critics of Foot's attire.
A real giant of British politics and intellectualism, and I can't help feeling that Britain might be a better place if he had won the '83 election.

It was another Labour MP that called the 1983 election manifesto "the longest suicide note in history."

It was very left wing and very unpopular leading to the landslide defeat that Labour suffered.

And that was pretty much the end of the Labour Party as being a genuine left wing socialist party lead by idealism and the start of it's conversion into the media-savvy centralist party that we see today.

So a massive defeat of the party followed by Foot's resignation and the party shifting pretty much it's entire direction.

Not a good conclusion to his leadership.

So yes I think that it's a good argument to say that he broke the party and yes I also believe that he was wrong over many things but on the other hand he genuinely believed in those things and refused to shy away from them no matter how unpopular with the British public they evidently were.

So for that he deserves some respect and credit and the disappearance of his type of politician is much missed.

"I can't help feeling that Britain might be a better place if he had won the '83 election."

Certainly not...

No House of Lords, withdrawal from the EU, nuclear disarmament and renationalisation of industries.

All bad ideas.

All wildly unpopular ideas.

All clearly rejected by the public.

All dropped by the time Labour got back into power in 1997.

He was a man of enormous integrity and intelligence and very highly principled. I remember vividly going on many CND marches and rallies in my early teens and he would be there, a spectacular and captivating orator. He crystallised my personal views and beliefs at the time perfectly. He was a hero to me.

I despised the way the Murdoch machine sought to belittle him - but then what else would we expect from the grubby grasping House of Murdoch?

I'm not saying that they are popular ideas, but they are certainly ideas i agree with:
no unelected second chamber, no nuclear weapons, large industries that provide services and derive profits for all and not just shareholders...
OK, i'm pretty pro EU, but Foot's problem with Europe was related to the undemocratic way in which the EEC at that time had been invisaged. It's still pretty undemocratic.
As for the financial/economic elements of the '83 manifesto,

We will:

• Establish a National Investment Bank to put new resources from private institutions and from the government - including North Sea oil revenues - on a large scale into our industrial priorities. The bank will attract and channel savings, by agreement, in a way that guarantees these savings and improves the quality of investment in the UK.
• Exercise, through the Bank of England, much closer direct control over bank lending. Agreed development plans will be concluded with the banks and other financial institutions.
• Create a public bank operating through post offices, by merging the National Girobank, National Savings Bank and the Paymaster General's Office.
• Set up a Securities Commission to regulate the institutions and markets of the City, including Lloyds, within a clear statutory framework.
• Introduce a new Pension Schemes Act to strengthen members' rights in occupational pension schemes, clarify the role of trustees, and give members a right to equal representation, through their trade unions, on controlling bodies of the schemes.
• Set up a tripartite investment monitoring agency to advise trustees and encourage improvements in investment practices and strategies.

oh the irony..in the context of recent economic woes I can see nothing here but good...

"I'm not saying that they are popular ideas"

They obviously weren't popular ideas.

And it was very clear in the run up to that election that they weren't popular ideas.

However Foot stuck to them and refused to compromise his principles in an attempt to get into power. And it's for that that he does deserve enormous respect.

I don't believe, for example, that David Cameron believes one word that he's saying. But he's going to say whatever it takes to get him elected.

I think we agree then that they definitely were not popular ideas...

As for Cameron, exactly the sort of Tory that Foot denouced back in the old days I think. As you say, only interested in power and the preservation of power.

so tis true that only the good die young

True enough that the Falklands did help the Tories enormously. But don't ignore the way that the public also completely rejected the very left wing Labour manifesto. As I've said before it wasn't a Tory that called it "the longest suicide note in history".

That manifesto marks the high water mark of the Labour Party as a true Socialist party. After that they pretty much completely changed their direction. They didn't do that just because the Falklands was the deciding factor. They clearly accepted that their policies had been utterly rejected and that they needed to change if they were to win an election. And it took them 14 years to do it.

If anything gave Blair ideas about Kosovo it was the Gulf War pt 1.

That was a very different conflict to the Falklands and far similar in nature to Kosovo and Iraq. It gave the impression of airpower being overwhelming and victory being possible without much fighting on the ground.

That was the lesson that we took into those other conflicts.

The Falklands taught us little, other than the political power of a victory.

@Grimmathenone spot on nice erudite guy. But it is not sad he lived until 96 FFS my mum did not see 66. Celebrate his life and the fact that he survived with his marbles intact 96 is a f----ing good age to go IMHO Politicians can't live forever thank God!