July 19, 2004

Paul Foot dies

Posted by Chris

British socialist journalist Paul Foot, contrarian and campaigner against many miscarriages of the criminal justice system, is dead.

Posted on July 19, 2004 04:03 PM UTC
Comments

I never met him, but saw him speak many times, and was always utterly charmed, completely against my will. I never heard him take credit for his own achievements, and was struck by how, on an often mean-spirited left, he frequently cited the success and achievements of (non-SW-belonging) others — eg the lavish, but merited, praise he used to heap on Chris Mullin. A sad shock, this.

Posted by harry · July 19, 2004 05:12 PM

I liked his writing. I hope he can influence the quality of writing on this blog from cloud he is currently sitting on.

I imagine they all have ethereal-broadband in Heaven. I expect CT is one of their most popular blogs.

Posted by q · July 19, 2004 06:39 PM

It won’t be one of his lesser achievements that he helped to popularise Shelley as a socialist before his time.

But I agree with Harry. Paul’s most attractive attributes were his humility, his generosity, and his oratory passion which is sorely amiss among today’s “Westminster village” political class.

Posted by lenin · July 19, 2004 07:46 PM

Entirely worth remembering that when the awful Blunkett moans about “Hampstead liberals” who “care more about criminals than victims”, this is the kind of person he’s talking about.

Posted by dsquared · July 19, 2004 10:57 PM

Y’know, I still expect to see a phone number for him in the next Private Eye, just with an area code for the aetherial plane.

He was that kind of bloke, and will be missed.

Posted by nick · July 20, 2004 02:45 AM

And when remembering Paul Foot, it’s worth noting that he was one of the few to pursue the Lockerbie story, and the governmental and press volte-face when the Libyan trials began. Something to remember, especially whenever Bush trots out his lines about Libya.

Posted by nick · July 20, 2004 06:06 AM

Woe.

Or, as we say in South Africa:

Ag, shame.

Posted by MFB · July 20, 2004 01:26 PM
Followups

This discussion has been closed. Thanks to everyone who contributed.