I was rather sad to hear of the death of Michael Foot today. Whatever you think of his politics, he always came across as thoughtful, considered and polite. He was also a great political orator - a skill that seems lacking in today's sound-bite media culture. I'm not sure how he will be remembered by history. I would say that he was the last political leader in this country to actually be honest in his election manifesto - and look where that got him!
I have noticed quite a few people mentioning that he showed great disrespect to our war dead by wearing a donkey jacket at the Cenotaph. This is well remembered by many people and was often brought up by the right-wing press when they wanted to give him a kicking. There was one problem, though. He never actually wore a donkey jacket to the Cenotaph. It was a green duffel coat - sensible attire for a man who, even then, was in his late 60's and was having to stand out for several hours on a cold November day. I must admit that it would have looked a tad smarter if he had buttoned the thing up but it was certainly far removed from the typical navvy attire that the press was attempting to associate him with.
It seems rather odd that certain "facts" seem to stick with people. Stephen Fry has made an entire television series out of this with the panel show QI and it seems that the general public are quite keen to run Alan Davies style into obvious but entirely wrong impressions of the truth. I know I have tried many times in vain to trace down the origin behind some of the most absurd sounding stories. Sometimes even Snopes can get it wrong.
The advent of the internet should have made it easier to get at the facts but it actually seems to be an ideal medium for some of the more pernicious memes to run virally out of control.
I have noticed quite a few people mentioning that he showed great disrespect to our war dead by wearing a donkey jacket at the Cenotaph. This is well remembered by many people and was often brought up by the right-wing press when they wanted to give him a kicking. There was one problem, though. He never actually wore a donkey jacket to the Cenotaph. It was a green duffel coat - sensible attire for a man who, even then, was in his late 60's and was having to stand out for several hours on a cold November day. I must admit that it would have looked a tad smarter if he had buttoned the thing up but it was certainly far removed from the typical navvy attire that the press was attempting to associate him with.
It seems rather odd that certain "facts" seem to stick with people. Stephen Fry has made an entire television series out of this with the panel show QI and it seems that the general public are quite keen to run Alan Davies style into obvious but entirely wrong impressions of the truth. I know I have tried many times in vain to trace down the origin behind some of the most absurd sounding stories. Sometimes even Snopes can get it wrong.
The advent of the internet should have made it easier to get at the facts but it actually seems to be an ideal medium for some of the more pernicious memes to run virally out of control.
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