What I wrote at Lib Dem Voice

February 02, 2007

Kinnocking on heaven's door

Time is an unforgivingly impudent little monkey… Neil Kinnock led Her Majesty’s Official Opposition for nine years, fought two general elections, and delivered two of the best platform speeches of modern times:
  • “If Margaret Thatcher wins on Thursday: I warn you not to be ordinary; I warn you not to be young; I warn you not to fall ill; and I warn you not to get old.” (7 June 1983).
  • “I'll tell you what happens with impossible promises. You start with far fetched resolutions. They are then pickled into a rigid dogma, a code, and you go through the years sticking to that, out-dated, misplaced, irrelevant to the real needs, and you end in the grotesque chaos of a Labour council - a Labour council - hiring taxis to scuttle round a city handing out redundancy notices to its own workers.” (1st October, 1985).
So there’s something rather poignant that the search-term ‘Neil Kinnock’ on YouTube yields only four results:
  1. A Spitting Image sketch;
  2. A clip from the Recommended Daily Allowance;
  3. A rather peculiar song;
  4. And, of course, the Tracey Ullman video, My Guy’s Mad At Me, from a 1982 edition of Top of the Pops. It does at least start to make webcameron look like mature politics.
Here it is in all its glory:



In case that was all too gruesome, cheer yourself up with the rather fabulous Rufus Wainwright singing ‘The One You Love’:



Have a great week-end...

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

oooh- Rufus Wainwright! can't wait for the new cd- apparently neil tennant has been 'overseeing' it!

Anonymous said...

Some of your favourite films (The Third Man, Casablanca) are also mine, and we have common musical tastes (though you don't mention Belle and Sebastian, my top tip :-0)). Since I'm a Tory and you're an LD ... should one of us be concerned -- or is this another effect of Dave C's Liberal Conservatism? :-0). cheers and best wishes - G

Stephen Tall said...

Simon - indeed. Should be excellent. Did you hear Neil on Desert Island Discs yesterday?

Graeme - I think a programme for government may need to extend a little beyond liking the same films and music. Though I'm sure I've heard Ming's fave album is The Boy With The Arab Strap.

Anonymous said...

Yes Stephen, i had 'desert island discs' on sunday morning! PSB's are my favourite band! 'Fundamental' was fantastic - apart from 'Psychological'- and ranks up there with the PSB's best albums (Behaviour, Very and Introspective). What's your favorite Rufus track then ( yes, i know- difficult to narrow it down) mine - i don't know what it is- sheer class!

Anonymous said...

So long as you're against ID cards Stephen, I'm sure we can find a cure for the state we are in. Which is perhaps the worst pun I've ever uttered.