Boss Radio

Michael Foot was the first Labour leader to be pitched against Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. To some he must have been the obvious candidate since he was, in almost every way, the anti-Thatcher. Whilst Mrs. T was hell bent on balancing the economy, and was on record as saying that mass unemployment was a price worth paying to balance the books, Mr. Foot believed that balancing the books was unimportant compared with the necessity to get people off the dole and back to work at any expense. Thatcher believed that the market could be trusted to run everything, Foot believed that there were some things which should never be allowed into the hands of those driven by the profit motive.

As such he was loathed by the barons of the press, all of whom began a hate campaign against him on a scale never seen before in Britain. Rupert Murdoch in particular seemed to be taking it almost personally. Two papers did remain clear of the scrum, the fiercely independent Manchester Guardian which had always seemed to be on the side of the minority Liberal party, and the rabidly pro-Labour Daily Mirror, which had previously been Britain's top newspaper on the strength of its working class leanings, but had now lost the title to Murdoch's Sun with its pictures of 'birds with their tits out' on page three.

Having two papers not exactly against him made little difference when he was photographed at a memorial service wearing a "Donkey jacket" rather than the black dress that was expected of our leaders at such events. The press were united in their disgust at this gesture of disdain towards Britain's fallen and Foot didn't help matters by not defending himself, it was left to others to point out that he was in fact wearing the regulation black suit under his jacket as could be clearly seen in newsreel footage of the event, and it was left to his wife to point out that it wasn't a donkey jacket, it was an overcoat just like many others being worn on that cold day, and she displayed the coat to prove it. The press didn't want to know, to them it was more important to have something to beat Foot with than to tell the truth. Not one printed a retraction. Even today people were still commenting on how he shouldn't have worn that donkey jacket, and not being corrected.

Meanwhile there was another difference between Foot and Thatcher. He was heavily anti-war, convinced that it should always be possible to hammer out a solution to any problem without sending the working class out to get killed in the cause, whilst she was handed the perfect opportunity to prove that no one can mess with us. With less than a year to go to the next election which she was, despite the support of the press, almost certain to lose, Argentina invaded The Falklands. Thatcher immediately became the war prime minister and despite his anti-war leanings Foot supported her immediate military reaction which was instantly seen as weakness on his behalf.

In the event the Argentinians seemed reluctant to actually engage in open warfare and it was left to Thatcher to actually start hostilities by ordering the sinking of the General Belgrano, an Argentinian vessel which it was later admitted had been in international waters sailing away from the islands and no immediate threat to anyone. The war shifted the balance of the parties. Popularity polls saw Thatcher's popularity rating raise by between 20 and 30% and by election time Foot had become, according to the press (So it had to be true...), unelectable, and the election results showed them to be correct, even if it was a bit of a self fulfilling prophecy.

Foot resigned the leadership shortly after the election, and Thatcher went on to destroy our manufacturing base and/or save the economy, depending upon your point of view. To me it marked the end of an era that had served us well since the war. The Conservatives made life better for the rich so they liked being here and employing people, then the Socialists came in and made things better for the workers so they could afford to buy stuff, then the Tories got back in and... You get the idea.

RIP Michael Foot.