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Robin Cook Seriously Ill
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
Peronsally I can stand the gnome-like "dumped my wife at the airport" twat, but I know a few of you see him and an icon for sticking by his principles (eventually )...
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RIP Robin
That was unexpected...
RIP
May he rest in peace.
Just very sudden and unexpected, really sad. RIP.
the first respectable post you've made yet
Agree - I disagreed with his politics, but he was only 59 and its rather sad when someone that young dies.
DON'T GO HILL WALKING.
It wasn't, and the war was clearly going to happen, so instead of keeping quiet for the sake of ambition he resigned and directly attacked Tony Blair's decision in what has generally acknowledged as one of the best and most eloquent resignation speeches in modern British political history- which even won him the spontaneous applause practically the entire House of Commons, including foes and opponents.
Subsequent criticism of British policy on Iraq (i.e. of Blair's decision and indeed the New Labour cabinet) doesn't strike me as good career move. If Cook was going to be put back in the Cabinet by Brown was because of his great calibre as a politician, and in spite of his direct criticism of the government. Indeed, most political commentators in the papers seemed to agree that Cook proved a sharper and more effective government critic than the opposition parties themselves.
Examples being the earlier bombing (whilst he was Foreign Secretary), which he defended in Parliament, and his sanctioning of the sale of Hawks to Indonesia. Not to mention his "principled" stance on shagging-your-secretary-and-then-dumping-your-wife-in-the-departure-lounge-of-an-airport-because-it's-about-to-become-public.
I didn't agree with the 1998 bombings either or with Cook's stance at the time. But he clearly thought he was doing/supporting the right cause at the time, and I think he's shown more integrity over Iraq on the whole than 99% of front bench MPs from all parties concerned- or at least from both Labour and the Tories.
That was his biggest fuck up as a politician alright, the farce that the ''ethical foreign policy'' descended into.
Not that it should have anything to do with his politics career (unless he was a 'backs to basics' moral crusader preaching one thing and doing another), but seeing as it was all going to the press the following morning coming clear before leaving the country on a holiday seems much more proper than waiting until you're away to me.