Michael Foot

I’ve been browsing the BBC’s excellent new Democracy Live site, in particular the “Historic Moments” section.

A particular highlight is Michael Foot’s outstanding winding-up speech in the debate on the Tory motion of no confidence in the Labour Government in March 1979, one of the finest Parliamentary speeches I have ever heard.  Combining his fearsome wit and intellect in equal measure, Foot both ridiculed the Tories and forensically unpicked their arguments.  A remarkable quality of Michael Foot’s speeches is that he always remains gracious, generous and good-natured even when ripping the opposition to shreds and ridiculing their position.  This speech is no exception.

During the debate he makes reference to a number of Tory attacks against Labour, and what struck me was the similarity of some of these attacks with those of Cameron’s Conservatives today.  A particular case in point is the way the Tories are currently attempting to portray Britain as somehow alone in the world in facing a recession, as if we are much worse off than other economies.  Back in 1979, and referring to Margaret Thatcher, Foot said:

Worst of all, perhaps, the greatest disservice that the right hon. Lady does to the country in the way in which she presents the argument is that she seeks to pretend that all the burdens and problems that we have had to contend with in the past four years—and nobody can say that the storm has not been a fierce one— The Conservatives think that there is no storm blowing outside. So ignorant are they of the outside world that they think that there is a storm blowing only here. So incompetent and ill equipped are they to try to put things right that they do not even trouble to know what is happening in other parts of the world.

He continues:

When my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister goes to conferences to meet the leaders of the United States, Japan and other countries, all that the right hon. Lady and her friends can do in the House is to jeer and sneer as if those were matters of no significance. Moreover, the right hon. Lady does something worse. She says that in some way or other this country has been demeaned in the councils of the world during these past four years. There is no basis for that. It is not what the leaders of the other countries say; it is only what the Leader of the Opposition in this country says.

Sound familiar?  Now, as then, the Tories are talking the British economy down and mocking the efforts of a Labour Prime Minister in his negotiations with other nations.

Whilst extracting these quotes from Hansard I noticed something else that sounded familiar.  Or rather, someone else.  I refer to the then Labour member for Ormskirk, better known as Robert Kilroy-Silk, who also spoke passionately in the debate on the motion of no confidence.  What was unfamiliar though was his robust defence of a Labour Government:

Let us consider the record of the Government in relation to the pledges and promises set out in the manifesto. There has probably not been a Government in this country in the post-war period who have implemented so many of their pledges and fulfilled so many of their promises as the present Government… Labour Members do not have to go on the defensive. Our record is clear and clean, and is a good one. Conservative Members may jeer, but the country outside will cheer. Conservative Members will be the ones to hear those cheers loudest in the next few weeks and months.

It seems Kilroy has changed over the last thirty years, even if Tory attack lines remain the same!

I’d hate to end on a Kilroy quote, so I turn once again to the splendid oratory of Michael Foot, and a quote of his we would all do well to remember when times are tough:

It is sometimes in the most difficult and painful moments of our history that the country has turned to the Labour Party for salvation, and it has never turned in vain.

Sadly, of course, the Government lost the confidence motion by one vote, and the country didn’t turn to Labour for salvation again until 1997.