Ted
So farewell Ted Heath, former PM and "Father of the House."
What's an old lefty doing noting the death of Teddy? Two things really.
Firstly Ted was a dedicated pacifist and they seem to be few and far between amongst the current generation of hot-heads in the Commons and beyond. His pacifism came from his life experience. As a student in the 30s he visited Nazi Germany, he was at one of the famous Nuremberg rallies and later fought in WW2. He saw first hand the terrible toll which war takes from humanity and decided that it was unacceptable. Ted always favoured dialogue, sitting down with your enemies to find common ground on which to form the basis of negotiations and peace, "jaw jaw, not war war" as Churchill said. This earned him many enemies particularly in 1991 when he went to Baghdad soon after Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, to try to negotiate the freedom of British hostages and a settlement that would lead to Iraq leaving the country. He failed but at least he tried. Maybe if George Bush hadn't used his father's influence to avoid Vietnam but had instead seen for himself the reality of combat he wouldn't be so keen to sacrifice so many lives in the Middle East today?
The second reason I have a soft spot for Ted is that he despised Mrs Thatcher. She replaced him as leader of the Conservative party; he never forgave her and in what is now referred to as the longest sulk in political history he spent Thatcher's entire premiership attacking her and her evil policies saying in 1989 "Whatever the lady does is wrong. I do not know of a single right decision taken by her."
How can anyone agrue with that?
What's an old lefty doing noting the death of Teddy? Two things really.
Firstly Ted was a dedicated pacifist and they seem to be few and far between amongst the current generation of hot-heads in the Commons and beyond. His pacifism came from his life experience. As a student in the 30s he visited Nazi Germany, he was at one of the famous Nuremberg rallies and later fought in WW2. He saw first hand the terrible toll which war takes from humanity and decided that it was unacceptable. Ted always favoured dialogue, sitting down with your enemies to find common ground on which to form the basis of negotiations and peace, "jaw jaw, not war war" as Churchill said. This earned him many enemies particularly in 1991 when he went to Baghdad soon after Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, to try to negotiate the freedom of British hostages and a settlement that would lead to Iraq leaving the country. He failed but at least he tried. Maybe if George Bush hadn't used his father's influence to avoid Vietnam but had instead seen for himself the reality of combat he wouldn't be so keen to sacrifice so many lives in the Middle East today?
The second reason I have a soft spot for Ted is that he despised Mrs Thatcher. She replaced him as leader of the Conservative party; he never forgave her and in what is now referred to as the longest sulk in political history he spent Thatcher's entire premiership attacking her and her evil policies saying in 1989 "Whatever the lady does is wrong. I do not know of a single right decision taken by her."
How can anyone agrue with that?
Ted slyly gives Thatch a two fingered salute.
posted by phylos @ 12:37
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home