so farewell frank dobson

[Pickman's model]

died aged 79

Frank Dobson, former Labour health secretary, dies

always looked quite a genial man but am sure much of his politics were appalling

 

[billy_bob]

He was jettisoned in favour of Milburn because he was he wasn't enthusiastic enough about selling off the NHS, so he was at least less awful than most of New Labour.

 

[marty21]

Got shafted by Labour when Red Ken ran for Mayor as an Independent .

RIP

Famously a Council tenant as well

 

[Smokeandsteam]

He was jettisoned in favour of Milburn because he was he wasn't enthusiastic enough about selling off the NHS, so he was at least less awful than most of New Labour.

If I remember rightly he was opposed to ‘foundation hospitals’ and this led to him being removed and replaced by the oily Milburn.

He correctly saw the concept as both creeping privatisation and marketisation of services.

He also saw Labour’s use of PFI for infrastructure projects in the NHS as a generational financial millstone round the neck of the service.

He was right on both counts so Blair sacked him

 

[belboid]

He could give good interview at times for sure:

 

[Sprocket.]

Always saw him as doing as well as he could manage in the situation he found himself at the time. A decent bloke I thought.
Bye Frank.

 

[StoneRoad]

RIP Frank
Usually sounded to be a decent bloke as far as I could tell. Like most people, he did a number of not so good things ...

Wiki bio
Frank Dobson - Wikipedia

 

[hash tag]

Sad. RIP Frank.

 

[8ball]

Didn't he used to go on that programme with Andrew Neil a lot?

 

[8ball]

He could give good interview at times for sure:

You can see Paxo at 0:34 thinking "hang on, this isn't in the script".

 

[brogdale]

died aged 79

Frank Dobson, former Labour health secretary, dies

always looked quite a genial man but am sure much of his politics were appalling

Met Frank a few times when an undergrad...his spouse was doing some sort of course in my dept. at the time and he seemed to like hanging around with the staff & students...so yeah, genial is a good call.

 

[19force8]

Here's a copy of the Tolmers News of March 1975 in which he gets an honourable mention.

http://www.nickwates.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/19TolmersNewsMar75.pdf

It was before I arrived in London, but I always liked what they did with the Tolmers Square area behind Drummond St.

The talk of Compulsory Purchase Orders and major council home building schemes seems a world away now.

 

[MsHopper]

Paxman looks bemused by the straight answers

He could give good interview at times for sure:

 

[tony.c]

Frank Dobson was a good 'old' Labour politician. When Royal Mail was threatening to cut 1500 staff at my mail centre he helped our campaign to save jobs, though his constituency only covered our car park.
RIP.

 

[elbows]

Sounds like he was also 'old school' in ways we didnt get a glimpse of in the wider public sphere....

His personal style was a holdout too - the Tory diarist Alan Clark found they shared a politically-incorrect sense of humour: "His [stories] are so filthy that really they're unusable, even at a rugger club dinner," he wrote in his diaries.

Labour ex-minister Frank Dobson dies aged 79

 

[William of Walworth]

His Guardian obituary is here

 

[tony.c]

Iirc Frank Dobson also ran the Labour campaign to oust the BNP Councillor elected in the Isle of Dogs in 1993/4.