Red in the rows at Michael Foot's funeral
Gordon and Sarah Brown were there; Glenys and Neil Kinnock; Alastair Campbell; Fiona Miller and 60 members of the Foot family.
The car park of the West Chapel at the good-old Golders Green Crematorium was heaving. Cherie Booth sat next to Dennis Skinner – if there were a left glitterati they were here.
Beyond a bit of Verdi at the beginning and Rossini at the end the only other music was the spirited rendition of The Red Flag. And whilst Michael’s Foot’s generation would have known all the words I noticed some of the most hardened reds peeping down at the words set out in the order of service.
There was no service – instead a completely uplifting account of Foot’s life: ups and downs and some of the funniest or the most memorable lines, delivered by Peter Jones of Plymouth Argyle. The team’s scarf was the only addition on the coffin beyond the inevitable red roses.
It was undoubtedly a passing. And one in which speaker after speaker retrieved the words of Swift, Byron and more. Gordon Brown quoted Cicero as did Foot’s stepdaughter Julie, whom Foot called Judy all her adult life.
Foot’s grandnephew Tom described only a month ago Michael Foot making his courageous descent of the 50 staircases of his house and arriving at the breakfast table to exclaim about the boiled egg awaiting him: “It’s the best I have ever eaten – ever!”
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There are 11 comments on this post
I have only lived in this country since 1998. Still, I have taken to some British people more than others. Michael Foot was one of those people I so much would have loved to meet. The interview you did with him, partly broadcast again on the day of his passing, only reinforced this feeling. I never did meet him, of course.
So happy then, that he had a good sending off – and that he managed to have the egg of his life before that happened! RIP Mr Foot.
Perhaps taste in fact does improve with age.
I have been thinking about the last 30 years more than ever over the last couple of days. It is not just Michael Foot who has died, it is an establishment of rebels; not ruffians , just those who wanted to change the world.
Mum died in 2007 saying that labour had made the Uk a better place.. I didn’t agree..but In retrospect .. perhaps she was right.
One of the most exciting days of my life was a visit to the House of Commons in the mid-eighties, when I had friends who were MPs. I saw Michael Foot in one of the corridors, and felt an extraordinary excitement. Although this was followed by watching Margaret Thatcher at Question Time and being introduced to Vanessa Redgrave later in the evening, the real explosion, for me, a dedicated leftie, was setting eyes on Michael!
Michael Foot has passed away and can now rest in peace, I hope.
Hope must always be out last feeling to die.
I will say no more as I would feel out of place commenting on a man I knew so little about.
The feeling that Michael Foot would have wanted to leave a planet in harmony and using our ultra high technology for purely positive causes, is strong.
adzmundo The Venus Project & CND
I wonder how many of the current labour government would stay openly loyal to an unfashionable club like Plymouth Argyle?
What a contrast to Tony Blair who only wanted to be photographed alongside the latest superstar.
Whether you agreed with him or not, it was clear to all observers that Michael Foor was a politician from his heart. Few of his successors get any nearer than their wallets.
We all lost a role model with the truly honourable Mr Foot.
He has gone .A honourable man , i could never support , yet if we had listened to him over the common market we would all be better off .Those you often disagree with , hold valid arguments sometimes.
We should have also listened to him about nuclear weapons.
We now have the two major parties committed to spending billions on a replacement for Trident. Why?
The biggest danger is from terrorists who are not deterred by nuclear weapons. And even if they attack us with their own nuclear devices, how would we respond?. They are not a country so would we drop the bomb on Pakistan or Afghanistan?
Either they are locked into a cold war mentality or, more likely, it’s boys’ games of my bomb is bigger than your bomb so you should listen to me. Either way it’s a complete waste of money.
It’s informative that such polar opposites as Michael Foot and Enoch Powell should have shared the same view on the topic of Europe.
Two towering intellects, both abused by so many who are mere squabbling pigmies in their shadows.
Imagine Brown paying tribute to Micheal Foot – a man that stood for so much that Brown and Blair did not want . Brown and Blair are Thatcherites thro and thro – maybe they view services like todays as photo opportunities . They should do the decent – honest thing – and stay away .
It must have been a heck of a big house to have fifty staircases (sic.) I hope the egg was still warm! I did see that you were misquoted elsewhere as having said that he had made a ‘courageous dissent’ (sic ) of the same , which you had not said at all, but it seemed to me that the notion of ‘courageous dissent’ was not without its unintended charm , in the circs.