Michael Foot

My first response when the good lady informed me of Michael Foot’s death was there goes Plymouth Argyle‘s most famous supporter. Come to think of it he was probably the only supporter of their’s I’d heard of.

He was very proud of the fact that he’d been registered for them as a player on his ninetieth birthday. (To play only on the left, of course, never the right.)

Quite what his view would be of the ridiculous advertising campaign for an insurance company that seems to take the Albion’s supporters in vain I dread to think.

His other incarnation (as a politician) reached its peak when he was elected leader of the Labour Party. Unfortunately for him, or perhaps fortunately as I don’t think he ever really wanted to be PM, this was at the time the Thatcher juggernaut was in full swing.

There was a confected furore when he arrived at the Cenotaph for the Remembrance Day observances in 1982 wearing what was dubbed a donkey jacket but was more like a duffle coat. This was taken to be disrespectful of the dead – mostly by those who’d never been within miles of a battlefield themselves. (He had himself volunteered for military service in the Second World War but been turned down due to his chronic asthma.)

The Queen Mother – no left winger – apparently thought differently as she is said to have told him, “Very wise. It’s cold today.”

In all of his utterances he always seemed to be one of the few politicians who are genuine and mean what they are saying.

Michael Foot: 23/7/13 – 3/3/10. So it goes.

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