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RIP John Prescott

a point I've read- its easy to see where blairism and its pale successors have failed, another reckoning is the failure of the prescott's too. A more difficult question perhaps but their inability to hold the line on social democratic values is its own part of where things are today. Made me think a bit inamongst my desire to pour some out for one of the old school and enjoy the glory day vids of him punching a hunt supporter.
 
Winot said:
I was once at a party where I ended up talking simultaneously to the woman I lost my virginity to [edit - many years earlier rather than that night] and John Prescott. Felt like one of those weird dreams but actually happened.
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A weird dream would have been losing your virginity to John Prescott tbh
 
Smokeandsteam said:
That’s was undoubtedly how Blair and Co used him and he was savvy and clever enough to know it and yet went along with it. A ‘history of facing both ways’ is a good way of putting it actually.

But like Rayner now, the snark, open snobbery and class hatred (often from their ‘own side’) they provoke makes me instinctively side with them.
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Was he savvy and clever about it, though? Or was he seduced by the empty glory of the title of Deputy PM? He was an enabler, playing a similar role to the one Clegg would play for Cameron. (I would argue that Clegg was similarly seduced to give up any real power in return for the empty glory of the position.) And yeah, backed the Iraq War, as ska says, which is one he can't take back. A war enabler. Hard to get past that.
 
One of my brother' first gigs as a civil servant was assisting and speech writing for Prescott. According to him, what you saw was very much what you go with Prescott. He did not adjust well to things not going to plan and would 'f and blind and throw things' when not happy, but at the same time my brother said he preferred working for him than some stitched-up stiff-upper-lip type
 
I remember he was the government minister who confronted the Fire Brigades Union during the dispute of 2002-3. Eventually the government conceded a 16% pay rise.

I also seem to remember some embarrassing headlines involving antics with his diary secretary.

And his comment about the "plates shifting" around the time Brown was pressuring Blair to step down. Everyone thought he meant Tectonic plates when in fact he meant actual plates on a ship in heavy seas. It prompted sneers from Tories and the media that he was "the only minister with a job title bigger than his vocabulary". Nice. Not.

At the end of the day Gordon Brown is, I think, not far off the mark when he says:

You’ve got to look at his achievements. He was probably the first government minister to see the importance of the environment. Kyoto, that environmental treaty in 1997, you’ve got to attribute that to John’s hard work with Al Gore.

Then he saw the importance, and he was a pioneer of regional policy. So the fact we have devolution and mayors owes a great deal to what John was thinking right throughout the 1980s and 90s when I was working with him.

And then we mustn’t forget that one of the great achievements of John as environment secretary was the repair and improvement of housing, 1.5m houses which would not have been repaired without John’s determination that the social housing stock had to be remodernised.

So you’ve got to look at the practical achievements of someone who possibly surprised himself by the way that he managed to become deputy prime minister, but actually made a huge difference.
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I'm sorry, but this did raise a bit of a smirk :oops: :D

1732195311885.png


Hard to argue with the former, but also hard to argue that he at least came across a bit better than his contemporaries.

I, too, also hadn't realised quite how old he was (I now measure these things in how close they are to my parents' age :( ).
 
Cloo said:
One of my brother' first gigs as a civil servant was assisting and speech writing for Prescott. According to him, what you saw was very much what you go with Prescott. He did not adjust well to things not going to plan and would 'f and blind and throw things' when not happy, but at the same time my brother said he preferred working for him than some stitched-up stiff-upper-lip type
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Mrs W worked for him for a while (hence the anecdote above). He was a rare minister who properly thanked his staff. He also apparently had excellent political attennae.
 
The39thStep said:
All of that and I would also add that I remember seeing Prescott speak when he was a rank and file union activist and he was a different beast to the one who ended up promoting and defending Blair and resigning from the RMT. His railings against middle class culture were I'm sure heartfelt however they became a caricature, something that could be a distraction from what the governments he served in had ditched out . Someone to be wheeled out at convenient times to 'give balance' or to even attack working class militancy as 'I've seen it done it ' type response. A politician who could attack the Tories, and even in his later stages defend Corbyn from personal attacks and then fudge and bluster over what Labour should be doing. Ultimately after a history of facing both ways he won't be remembered for either his earlier militancy or any achievements in his time in office but as someone who once punched a Tory and had a bit of bluster.
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I was going to make a similar point that he was sent along to TUC conferences to use his 'credibility' to justify various aspects of New Labour. He wasn't really of the left in the party and was in the mix as Labour shifted rightwards in the 80s (particularly cementing one member one vote for the leadership elections). There really isn't much that's good in his time in government and as others have said, it's more about reacting to media/tory classism. I'll give him an RIP, but it's ultimately about what you do. And Prescott was at the very least an enabler and defender of New Labour - and the Iraq slaughter.
 
Puddy_Tat said:
he did lead with the left, what with being old labour

john prescott punching egg throwing twat
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A beautiful bit of timing in that photo. He's literally knocking the smirk of that bloke's face, but the brain hasn't quite registered the fact.
 
klang said:
I find it very hard to believe that he didn't think of the consequences before.
The millions of people suffering right now from the policies he was involved in sanctioning couldn't give less of a fuck about his 'regrets'.
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I was in the Labour Party till my late 20s and, along with a contempt for the way the Tories and media treated him, I have a residual sense of loyalty towards him. Ditto Rayner as mentioned upthread. But objectively, yeah, he wasn't on the side of the angels. To say the least.
 
I'm also reminded of this poem by the great Pam Ayres which I was lucky to see her perform once....

I am ready Mr Prescott
You can take me in your arms
All these years I've waited
To experience your charms
So fling aside those trousers
I hope they're quick release
For all that hanky panky's
Made you clinically obese

I like a man of substance
I like a man of size
Especially when I'm measuring
The bags beneath their eyes
If anyone insulted me
I have no doubt at all
You'd leap to my defence
And punch the blighter through the wall

I like you Mr Prescott
A constant watch I keep
To see you on TV
Sat next to Tony, fast asleep
So I'm waiting Mr Prescott
My toothbrush in my bag
To see your chiselled jaw
Behind the wheel of either Jag

A man like you is dangerous
A man like you is trouble
Just like a row of houses
You demolished me to rubble
With one hand on the tiller
As steady as a rock
And the other disappearing
Up the secretary's frock!
 
Voley said:
I had eye contact with him waiting for a night bus on Whitehall once. He was wearing an alarming jumper, yellow I think, and he scowled at me a bit.

Feel free to use that as an epitaph. You're welcome.
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My comment to colleagues at the time was "I don't think he was in a bad mood. He just has resting bitchface."

Also available for epitaphs.
 
It said on the radio a little while ago that Prescott played an important role in the transition between old and New Labour, a comment that evoked a memory of comments by a rep on the NEC, in which she reported that Blair, who seemed so fluent in public, found it difficult to talk to the NEC, and it was Prescott who was the one who was able to get the NEC on side. [Edited. I had misremembered.]
 
Last edited:
A true Labour giant. Both Blair’s New Labour and Old Labour. I met him a few times. A very good innings indeed. RIP.
 
www.lbc.co.uk

Angela Rayner says John Prescott 'used to call her after PMQs to remind her to stay true to who she is'

Angela Rayner has paid tribute to John Prescott, a predecessor as deputy Prime Minister, as she recalled how he used to give her a call after she did Prime Minister's Questions.
www.lbc.co.uk www.lbc.co.uk

Brief clip I heard today on LBC with Rayner talking about how Prescott mentored her as a fellow working class MP (and deputy PM). While I think both have sacrificed their true political selves for their careers, it's a bit sad that they are made to stand out as working class MPs who rose to power, in a party that was created to represent the working class.

A nice tribute, any way, regardless of what you think of either. RIP John Prescott.
 
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