Michael Foot: An inspiration
Michael Foot’s death is an immense loss. His principled manner and passionate oratory characterise a kind of politics that many would like to see more of today. He was defiantly un-spun, unknown to the airbrush and never minced his words, unlike so many politicians of today. He often had a tough time from the media, which younger politicians may have reflected upon and turned, as a result, to the kind of modern political tactics that were so alien to Foot. Yet these tactics can choke off the things that made Foot so endearing: a preference for reasoned argument, rather than pithy sound-bite; a strong fidelity to his beliefs, not endless hedging of them; a great optimism about the capacities of the better angels our nature, not a capitulation to the lowest common denominator. We politicians are held in low regard today. If we wish to recover our standing, we could do far worse than to take some lessons from Michael Foot.
His political legacy is vast, as is his contribution to Westmorland and Lonsdale. He was a great supporter of the Wordsworth Trust, serving as a Trustee for fifteen years, and lecturing regularly at the Wordsworth Summer Conference in Grasmere. He also donated important manuscripts and books to the Trust. He will be greatly missed.
A nice tribute to a thoroughly decent man. I didn’t know he was involved with Wordsworth Trust matters – admirably pluralist (as one might expect) of Foot, given that Wordsworth’s early radicalism tailed off into a crabbed Toryism that opposed the Reform Act. Michael Foot, though, always kept the faith. RIP.
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