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Samizdata obituary of the day I was sorry to hear that Robin Cook croaked. When he was alive I wanted to toss him into a vat of hot tar, to make him howl; but now he’s a stiff I realise what a loss he is to our nation.
– Harry Hutton
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The point is, you only wanted to do it. You didn’t intend to actually do it, and you certainly didn’t want him dead.
I’ll miss swearing at the bugger as well.
The man was about as honest as professional politicians get. He had wit and independent judgment.
Until very recently though, I wouldn’t, since I didn’t know him, have mourned the loss. But we live in odd times. Straight lefties (such as Cook), crazy lefties, and outright rogues are pretty much all that stand between us and such as Blunkett and Blears.
He was a wrong-thinking pest, but he was honest and principled. Unlike Clare Short, who dithered around trying to manipulate people into persuading her to stay, Cook resigned a powerful office crisply and cleanly. For that he is to be respected.
His “ethical foreign policy”, though was both ridiculous and a disaster. And he burrowed Britain deeper into the EU. Like all socialists with their hands on the lever, he did harm to Britain.
Robin Cook was one of the prinicipals of the NATO attack on Kosovo.
In light of this, I don’t see how he can possibly be called principled.
I felt that Robin Cook unwittingly helped the Euro-sceptic cause when he accused all those opposed to the EU project as “racist.”
With that single word it became blatantly obvious that the barrel had been well and truly scraped. The intellectual poverty of the pro-EU lobby was laid bare for all to see.
Oh yes that great humanitarian Robin Cook, prepared to bomb the civilian infrastructure of Serbia to rubble but too principled to take on Saddamned’s death squads without France’s permission. Obviously, a great man, we’ll not see his like again, etc etc.
I’m inclined to agree with Ted.
Cook’s resignation on the eve of the invasion of Iraq may have been principled, but I never felt that it was as impressive as all the pundits made it out to be. He had been effectively marginalised by Blair both with his demotion from Foreign Secretary to Leader of the Commons and through the lack of the PM’s support for his plans for a fully elected HoL. So IMO there was little reason for Cook to stay in the government anyway – Iraq merely gave him a polished excuse to resign in a dignified manner from what was otherwise a less than dignified end to a political career. Of course, his resignation was also designed to cause as much political damage to Blair as possible – which makes me less inclined to regard his ‘principled’ resignation as all that impressive.
So far as acting on political principles goes – I noticed that John Denham refused a return to government in Blair’s post-election reshuffle. That was principled.
This is a link to a picture which I found very funny.
Robert Alderson – The Clare Short idea occurred to me too, but I don’t think so. Does Gordon Brown go mountain climbing?
Apparently Edinburgh City Council wants a permenant memorial to Mr Cook.
This is ridiculous.
Have they announced a 3-minute silence yet?
Out of interest… Does any one know if George Galloway, Cherie Blair, Clare Short, and Diane Abbott also have heart conditions?
It’s just a thought. One can but live in hope.
Bloody socialists.
So far as acting on political principles goes – I noticed that John Denham refused a return to government in Blair’s post-election reshuffle.
If only he had done. He is much more poisonous as chairman of the Home Affairs Committee.
Out of interest… Does any one know if George Galloway, Cherie Blair, Clare Short, and Diane Abbott also have heart conditions?
I do hope not. See my remark about straight lefties, crazy lefties and outright rogues.