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Michael Foot |
Bring on big Gordon, says Labour elder Foot
Peter Gruner has a chat about life and politics with former Labour leader Michael Foot
AT 93 Michael Foot still maintains an extraordinary passion for life, I discovered when I met him at his home in Hampstead.
We were due to discuss food and dining out, but inevitably we got onto weightier subjects, including his desire to see Chancellor Gordon Brown elected Labour leader as soon as possible.
Michael revealed that he is on friendly terms with Gordon Brown and they had often talked about Gordon’s father “who made him the socialist that he is”.
“I hope Gordon will make a much better job of being Labour PM,” the party’s elder statesman said. “People up and down the country are waiting for him to get the chance to do the job properly.
“He’s a very honourable man and a chap who understands what the Labour movement is all about. The sooner he gets that chance the better.
“The worst thing the Blair government did was, of course, the war in Iraq. Many of us marched against the war – there were about a million – and it was one of the biggest marches in history.
“But we were ignored. If they had taken note of us then we wouldn’t be in this situation in Iraq. Instead they went ahead with what proved to be a terrible disaster of the first order.
“I remember Ken Livingstone speaking at the protest meeting. He was very good. But they didn’t listen. And instead they went ahead with this ghastly war.”
We sat for the interview in the basement of Michael’s house off Hampstead High Street, at a table groaning with books. Michael Foot is frail now and unable to get out as much as he did, which makes his books all the more important to him.
His latest reading included his great nephew John Foot’s homage to Italian football Calcio, and a book of photographs by Lee Miller, called Portraits, which included one of a young and beautiful Jill Craigie, Michael’s late wife, taken when she was a feminist film producer.
Pride of place, however, went to a huge hardback book on Nelson Mandela, with a personally signed message to Michael from Gordon Brown.
Talking about the Mandela book, which the Chancellor had sent him that very day, Michael added: “Gordon has always been a great admirer of what Mandela has done.
“I’m quite sure that when he has full control over our policies – as I’m sure he will very soon – he will remember Mandela and remember what the Labour Party and the movement is all about.”
He also hopes that Gordon Brown will, once and for all, remove Britain’s nuclear weapons.
Michael added: “Labour should have done this immediately it came to power. But it never happened. I want to see a new Labour government fulfilling its task and being the peacemaker of the world in the greatest traditions of our movement.”
Gesturing towards his table with a “feast of books”, he continued: “It’s crowded with books now, and there is nothing wrong with that.
“But there have also been wonderful times when friends would come to dinner and we would eat lovely food, cooked by Jill, and argue politics into the night.
“I remember having Trade union leader Frank Cousins and his wife for a meal at home with Jill and me. I was surprised to discover that when they invited us back it was Frank who did the cooking and did it extremely well.”
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