O.K. so he was a politician and therefore akin to pond life in the general scheme of things but in my opinion he was a cut above the others in many ways. Yes he had his demons with drink (and he is not alone there) but he brought humour and balance to the tawdry House of Commons and never stooped to the nasty backbiting and point scoring that has ruined politics generally for most of us. He had a wonderful dry wit and was a great panelist on Have I Got News For You where his humour and general likeability shone through. But above all, he stood tall against the Iraq invasion where everyone scorned him at first but time prooved him to be right and the awful Blair regime to be totally in the wrong and the country moved towards him and his party in great numbers. He was a credit to his party and to Scotland and will be sadly missed.
Hear, hear Really sad news to wake up to this morning, pretty devastating actualy, he was definitely one of the (few) good guys in politics and will certainly be missed. RIP, thoughts now with his family
Thanks Munky, yes, it was one of those moments where I felt devastated too. I saw the screen and was numbed.
I met him once on the Fowey ferry in Cornwall. I didn't let on that I knew who he was but chatted with him he seemed very much like he came across on telly. He did drag on a *** all the while,which may explain his demise.
Hear hear - he had the conviction to stand up to the farce that was the Iraq war and the clusterfuck that the region is now in is based on the decision to go against the UN by Bush and Blair.
Not sure why he was so down to earth, he was not one of those rare politicians who had 'life' experience outside the corridors of local and national government.
Maybe, just maybe, he was just a decent man who went into politics for the right reasons. Oh so rare nowadays which makes this news even the more devastating.
I'd definitely take that for mine, though I've already got my eyes on "good old boy" if I'm being honest.
Whilst agreeing with the general sentiment I am not sure that there was any other possible outcome for the Middle East given the religious tribalism. Take a look at Pat Condell on youtube.
100% agreed. Outdated people with outdated mode of thinking, especially those that take the Qu'ran literately as the word of God.
There are plenty of equally loony people who believe the Bible to be the literal word of God as well, and who live their entire lives according to it's text. I used to work with a guy, really nice fella actually, but he is a Christian fundementalist who genuinely believes that Earth is just over 8,000 years old as somebody added up all the ages of everyone in the Bible from Adam and Eve, added on 2,000 after Christ and voila! Pretty scary stuff what some seemingly rational people believe in.
A friend worked as an IT teacher in a posh private school. They taught creationism. It beggars belief that it is allowed.
There's a creationist zoo near Bristol too. Come for the animals, stay for the propaganda. I'd visit for a laugh if I didn't want to in any way fund their agenda.
A student I've worked with for five years came to see me last week and has become radicalised. Incredibly sad, I'd given up ***s for a week but had to have one after he explained to me how the world is.
