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Isn’t hindsight a wonderful thing? Media take note!
WHAT is the world coming to?
Two people stepped into the headlines this week whom I never thought the establishment media would credit with any achievement.
One, a very special woman, Claudia Jones, who died nearly 50 years ago; the other, Michael Foot, a grand old man who has been too often cruelly mocked by political know-alls.
The face of Claudia Jones, part of the set of new Royal Mail stamps issued on Monday, will, I hope, now make a lot of people start Googling her name.
A West Indian emigrant to the US, she was deported to these shores in the mid-1950s following imprisonment for her Communist views.
Here she fought for the rights of new West Indian immigrants, started the first black paper, and after the Notting Hill race riots organised a “carnival” at St Pancras Town Hall that grew into today’s annual Caribbean carnival.
Worn out, she died a youngish woman at her home in Hampstead – loved by her compatriots, unrecognised by the rest of Britain.
Today, she is honoured as a leading black woman.
I have long campaigned that a plaque be put up at her Hampstead home – so please, English Heritage, take note!
Remember how the press laughed itself silly when Michael Foot appeared on Armistice Day in a duffel coat! Then, even more uproariously, when he authored an election manifesto dismissed by the great and good as the “longest suicide note in history”.
Well, one of the pledges Mr Foot made was that he would, in effect – wait for it – nationalise banks that performed badly.
Didn’t Gordon Brown do exactly that this week? Much to the acclamation of the press and the City!
Talking about his manifesto, Mr Foot told me yesterday (Wednesday) at his Hampstead home: “In fact, it was full of very fine proposals, including the financial ones people are talking about today.
“It would have saved the country a lot of trouble at the time, in my opinion.”
A modest man, Mr Foot cannot bring himself to say outright: “If only the nation had listened to me rather than Mrs Thatcher!”.
But I shall on his behalf!
Goodnight Irene, mother of values
THEY played Goodnight Irene for Irene Bruegel,
a dedicated fighter for political justice, on Friday.
More than 250 mourners crowded into a chapel at Golders Green crematorium to pay their final farewell to the Highgate woman who died recently from a liver disorder.
She was 62.
For the founder of influential Jews for Justice for Palestinians, there were moments of humour as well as sadness at the secular service.
Her partner of 36 years, Richard Kuper, who joined her on many political battles, remembered during one feminist campaign how she wore a T-shirt emblazoned with the slogan: “Richard Kuper also oppresses women.”
Richard, no mean political thinker and activist himself, founded the publisher Pluto.
Daughter Jo described how her mother would leave messages at university – to the bemusement of flatmates – urging her to visit a particular Zimbabwean refugee in prison.
Jo said: “By the time I had unpicked that particular story she had already got him out. That was my mum.”
Jo added that she couldn’t even begin to say what she had learnt from her mother – “The values, the commitment, the belief: always the belief in the possibility of a better world.”
When she wasn’t teaching or researching Irene would relax at her beloved Ladies Pond at Hampstead Heath.
She leaves four children (including two step children) and two grand children.
MP Jeremy Corbyn said: “She was a woman who really believed that activists can and do bring about change.”
Full obituary in next week’s edition.
Come dancing with the good doctor!
THE “talking cure” of psychotherapists is well documented; the singing and dancing cure less so.
Brett Kahr, however, might be about to change all that.
The world-renowned psychotherapist of Bloomsbury’s Tavistock Clinic has penned the music and lyrics for new musical Rue Magique, which premieres at the King’s Head Theatre in Islington next week.
The production, about a London prostitute who forces her 13-year-old daughter into prostitution, is not entirely a departure for Mr Kahr – he is one of the leading authorities on mother-daughter relationships.
A very early draft was even performed for the Prince of Wales in 1999.
‘Cash-in-hand’ keeps everyone accountable
WHEN it comes to cash you shouldn’t take chances. John Shaw is a man who takes this maxim seriously.
Mr Shaw, who lives in Alexandra Place, West Hampstead, has been in a long-running battle with his housing association landlord over failure to “account” for rent paid since 2006.
So what is he doing about it now? Aware of the “banking problems in the UK”, he writes in a letter to this office that he intends to make future weekly payments “in cash” at his landlord’s office.
That’s how rent used to be paid in the old days – slower, perhaps, but safer.
Banking crisis? It’s all in a name, really
I GOT a shock the other day when I approached a well-known building society for a loan.
I feel in a good mood so I won’t embarrass them by naming them.
After I had gone into the Camden branch, the manager arranged for a colleague who specialises in loans
to ring me.
A few hours later I was rung by a loan specialist who took down my personal details – age, address and salary.
After a bit I could see she was tick-boxing these details – and then, 10 minutes later, ping! “I’ll just press this key and see what happens,” she announced. “Ah, good, the computer says you can have the loan.”
In bewilderment, I asked: “Aren’t you going to check everything independently?”
“No, no need,” she said. Then she explained that the contract and the cheque for the amount requested would be delivered the next morning by DHL.
She kept her word. Next morning, the DHL messenger arrived at my door.
By then I had changed my mind about the wisdom of a loan and told him to go away.
Since then, I have been rung several times by the society chasing me to accept the loan.
Fighting them off, I told them I was amazed that in these times anyone would be eager to offer loans.
“Ah,” said the manager. “We’re not a bank, we’re a building society.”
That, in her view, makes it all right. Even though the loan has been offered on the strength of a telephone call by a saleswoman and a list of tick-boxed answers.
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