Then and now ...

This is a follow-on to the quote of the day post immediately below, which I recommend should be read before reading this one.

I wanted to make people think for a moment about who might have made that robust quote about the rights of the Falkland Islanders to determine their own future, hence I linked to Hansard rather than giving the answer immediately below the quote.

What does it say about the change in the Labour party to look at the contrast between what Labour's leader at the time said in 1982, and what their present leader says about the Falklands?

But it's worse than that. Prior to 2015 Michael Foot was almost certainly the most unelectable leader Labour had ever chosen and is in a close race with IDS to be the most unelectable leader either of the two largest parties in Britain had ever chosen (we can't know for certain because Conservative MPs removed IDS rather than find out the hard way exactly how electorally disastrous he would have been).

Yet you only need to compare the comments of Michael Foot and Jeremy Corbyn about the Falklands to realise that the former was a great statesman compared to the latter.

Comments

Jim said…
Must admit I was not expecting Michael Foot - quite a shock when i went though the Hansard record you posted.

Though I do have an excuse - In 1982 I was 6 years old, was not born until the very end of 75, so I was still watching Play school rather than politics. Actually thinking about it, perhaps play school was more informative than a commons session these days.
9:21 am
Chris Whiteside said…
Exactly - and doesn't it say a lot about how far from Labour's traditions on matters such as defence Corbyn has moved that even someone like Michael Foot who was regarded at the time as very left wing would come up with a far more robust defence of Britain and of British citizens than Corbyn or most of his inner circle ever would.
2:32 pm
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