I was going to post the Healey interview on Phil Zone. The motherlode is from 4 mins onwards.
It was going to be part of a post I was going to write on the Left's forgetfulness.
They forget that they brought Callaghan down, not the Tories, and they forget that they made the Labour Party unelectable by choosing Foot (twenty years too late) over Healey.
If Thatcher was as bad as they claim, you would have thought that even Sunny Jim and Denis would have been preferable. Apparently not so.....
I think that's because they underestimated Thatcher till '83. Until then they still thought the tide was with them and it would be 'our turn next'.
Healey was personally unpopular [within the party] and if you look at his ministerial record never really had any positive achievements. And strange as it seems now people on the Left thought Benn would be calling the shots soon, if not the actual leader.
Ah, I see in my ineberiation I've responded to the wrong post.
But yeah, I think that's right re: underestimating Thatcher. But Foot, though? I remember my Dad being in despair over that - they must have had some inkling that it would be so disruptive.
Whatever Healey's record, he had real "presence". He was the only politician who made Thatcher look small. I remember, at least in my household, that it was felt that Falklands or not, Healey would have won the '83 election had he been the Labour candidate.
I still feel that now, but stand to be corrected by psephologists...
4 comments:
I love that song: I had no idea they made it onto TV. Had a vision of them as rather austere, but they seem to be more like crustie pranksters here.
Spooky.
I was going to post the Healey interview on Phil Zone. The motherlode is from 4 mins onwards.
It was going to be part of a post I was going to write on the Left's forgetfulness.
They forget that they brought Callaghan down, not the Tories, and they forget that they made the Labour Party unelectable by choosing Foot (twenty years too late) over Healey.
If Thatcher was as bad as they claim, you would have thought that even Sunny Jim and Denis would have been preferable. Apparently not so.....
I think that's because they underestimated Thatcher till '83. Until then they still thought the tide was with them and it would be 'our turn next'.
Healey was personally unpopular [within the party] and if you look at his ministerial record never really had any positive achievements. And strange as it seems now people on the Left thought Benn would be calling the shots soon, if not the actual leader.
Ah, I see in my ineberiation I've responded to the wrong post.
But yeah, I think that's right re: underestimating Thatcher. But Foot, though? I remember my Dad being in despair over that - they must have had some inkling that it would be so disruptive.
Whatever Healey's record, he had real "presence". He was the only politician who made Thatcher look small. I remember, at least in my household, that it was felt that Falklands or not, Healey would have won the '83 election had he been the Labour candidate.
I still feel that now, but stand to be corrected by psephologists...
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