Michael Foot RIP

I don't know where today's gone but I've just realised that Michael Foot has died at the age of 96. 'Who?' you younger and overseas readers might ask. Michael Foot was a giant in the Labour Party and was leader for a few years before Neil Kinnnock. His leadership coincided with my student years in Cardiff (when Kinnock used to speak to the Students Union Labour Party group, in English, not Welsh) and the start of the Thatcher years that led to so much bad news later in the '80s.

I recall reading a book of his essays many years ago and quaking in awe at his intellect and at the way he could get across very complex theories in relatively simple language. I remember him attending the Cenotaph in a duffle coat and being savaged in the press. I remember CND and marches through London.

Michael Foot was one of those relatively few people who lived their convictions throughout their lives. He was always a radical. All too often the radical of youth becomes the conservative of middle and old age. Not Mr Foot. A "conviction" politician indeed, and that is why so many people supported him and believed in him as a barometer of political opinion. He was part of my youth.

I haven't thought of Michael Foot in years but I'm sad to hear the news of his death.