The ITV newsreader has just said “The Labour chancellor Dennis Healey is dead” Wow, this IS news to me: I thought George Osbourne, a Tory was holding that position.
In all seriousness, he lived a great life.
Dennis Healey
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Should have been elected Labour leader, all those years ago. A much tougher nut for the Tories to crack than poor old Michael Foot.
Met him once on a train, blimey he was terrifying. He was totally out of step with what the Labour party had become in the 70s/80s, but credit to him for sticking & trying to change, rather than jumping ship. I recall a great Private Eye cover from the 80s when Healey is pointing a camera at Benn, with the speech bubble coming out of Benn…”I didn’t know Smith & Wesson made cameras”.
He was a great man.
A cliche I know, but he was the best leader Labour never had.
He was a brave, honourable, giant of a man.
RIP.
He was a proper leader of men: he has a “good” war and was a Major in the army . That generation of politicians were tempered like steel.
“That generation of politicians was tempered like steel.” even
Now on BBC website. That photo of him addressing the 1945 Labour conference, still in uniform, is pretty striking.
No Silly Billy he, irrespective.
Read his autobiography to see the depth of the man:
I remember him saying that he is in the Communist party before the war and he was advised by them not to enlist to fight Hitler. “Of course, I told them to sod off”.
According to a mate of mine who had some dealings with him, he was incredibly profane, freely effing and blinding and c-wording. Although my friend was in his 20s and he might just have been trying to be one of the lads.
Interestingly, his middle name is Winston – named after Winston Churchill who was already a well known public figure by 1917.
Very sad. He asked us what platform the Eastbourne train was on at Victoria station in 1988. And he when noticed that my wife (then girlfriend) had a massive Laura Ashley bag (it was her Wedding dress) and asked what it was, when told he said to me ‘always look after each other and always talk to each other and you’ll be alright. and with that he was gone.
And as he was married for over 60 years he knew what he was talking about. A lovely man
What is interesting is that someone was named after Churchill at a time when his reputation was at a very low ebb following the Gallipoli fiasco