Michael Foot and the time to reflect

Published: 11 February 2011

“MICHAEL Foot was too cultured for the Commons… he was a writer, a philosopher, a tremendous humanist… What is missing today

in the press is depth of knowledge and time to reflect”, states political reporter Geoffrey Goodman (Review, February 4).

However, Foot knew this was an age-old problem. He quoted Daniel Defoe: “The unhappy people are deluded, are imposed upon, are fermented… how? By raising false reports, affirming forged and barbarous allegations, raising scandalous surmises, and pushing about absurd, ridiculous and incongruous whimsies among the well-meaning but ignorant people” – from Debts of Honour (1980). He also posed the conundrum that those in power have no time to read, yet those who do not read are unfit for power.

Mike Bor, Hyde Park Square, W2