UKC

"Great guy and what a sense of humour!
Dennis Skinner:
"Half the Tories opposite are crooks."
Speaker: "Please retract"
"Ok, half the Tories opposite aren’t crooks."

In reply to Al Evans:

I used to enjoy Dennis at Question Time especially when he laid into his own Party Leader if he thought that they were not doing the best for his constituents.

In reply to Al Evans: Is he dead then?

In reply to Al Evans:

Legend!

E

In reply to FesteringSore:
(Who but a prat would turn up at a memorial service wearing trainers and a red anorak?)

In reply to Al Evans:

One of the few politicians in the Commons with any conviction or sense of duty. He always stresses that he is 'in office', not in power.

I don't agree with his politics, but if i lived in his constituency I'd vote for him.

In reply to Al Evans: I spent a day with him some years ago really interesting guy, quite a character. Loves cycling in the Peak too.

In reply to Al Evans: good to hear the Beast of Bolsover back on form

In reply to blurty:


I think that is a bit disingenuous. Don't forget that there are over 700 MPs of whom we only ever hear from a couple dozen. Of the rest, many are quietly beavering away on our behalves just as Dennis Skinner supposedly is.

In reply to ByEek:

In my job I deal with a few politicians (Local & National), in my experience they are only interested in power, and are amoral chameleons; they would give away their Granny's kneecaps if they thought it would get them re-elected.

I've not met Skinner, but my impression is that he is a straight arrow.

In reply to ByEek: In a previous job I used to work with politicians quite a bit. I think blurty's assessment is spot on!

In reply to blurty:

You're a daily mail journalist?

In reply to Al Evans:
'When posh boys are in trouble, they sack the servants.'

In reply to Al Evans:
Dennis Skinner, he's the man ok,

youtube.com/watch?v=27_uWz069XM&

In reply to moac: For those who don't know Dennis as an orater, here is a speech he made in April.
youtube.com/watch?v=KVHuxixPJRA&

In reply to Al Evans: It's very rare for me to praise the honesty of a politician, but Dennis Skinner has, whilst talking to a comrade of mine on the phone, admitted that the Labour Party has nothing to do with socialism.

In reply to Al Evans: I think Dennis Skinner is the only MP I have never disagreed with, my very left wing later girlfriend after my marriage collapsed used to call me Dennis

In reply to FesteringSore:


I would rather someone who cared turn up dressed anyhow, than somebody in a black suit & tie who didn't give a toss but thought they should go because it made them look good.

In reply to Al Evans:

Sorry to spoil your record, there, Al. You don't agree with him about the Labour Party having nothing to do with socialism, do you?

In reply to Hat Dude: It's not a matter of whether you "look good" but one of having respect for the occasion. To dress inappropriately is an indication that you cannot be bothered.

In reply to FesteringSore:

When my uncle died (in the north east0 I was working in Hertfordshire and drove up for the funeral. Didn't find out till i got to the cyhurch that I'd forgotten a jacket so I had to sit there in a white shirt sticking out like a sore thumb. people were only happy that i'd been able to make it and didn't give a toss what i was wearing

In reply to FesteringSore:

It's a matter of having respect for the occasion. To dress "inappropriately" could be an indication that you cannot be bothered; to dress formally doesn't prove that you are.

In reply to ByEek:

No there aren't.

In reply to FesteringBore:

Go on, bring up Michael Foot and that duffel coat, you know you want to.

In reply to Old Nick: I am surprised that you do not seem to know that it was not a duffel coat.

There are many varying styles to the duffel coat, although the original British style would be composed of the following features:

Made of genuine double weave Duffel, lined with a woolly tartan pattern, or self-coloured on the wartime version.
A buttonable neck strap
Three or, later, four front wooden or horn toggle-fastenings (known as "walrus teeth") with rope or leather loops to attach them to.
Two large outside patch pockets, with covering flaps on post-war versions.
Originally knee length, shorter on later versions.
Bucket hood with press stud adjustment, a neater 'pancake' hood on later versions.

In reply to FesteringSore:
i think you may have that wrong...

"The right-wing newspapers nevertheless lambasted him consistently for what they saw as his bohemian eccentricity, attacking him for wearing what they described as a "donkey jacket" (actually he wore a type of duffel coat)[17] at the wreath-laying ceremony at the Cenotaph on Remembrance Day in November 1981, for which he was likened to an "out-of-work navvy" by a fellow Labour MP.[18] Foot did not make it generally known that the Queen Mother had complimented him on it; he later donated the garment to the People's History Museum in Manchester"

In reply to graeme jackson: He still stuck out like a sore foot.

In reply to Al Evans:

He's always struck me as a bit of a chomper.

In reply to Al Evans:

From Hansard, 5th July 2013:

Mr Dennis Skinner (Bolsover) (Lab): In 1971, I voted against the then Common Market, and I voted for a referendum in 1975. Sadly, the country did not follow my advice, or we would not be doing what we are doing today. However, the Bill is deficient in one respect: it does not ask for a referendum until 2017. What we need is a referendum before the next election.

In reply to Al Evans:

Skinner to Roy Jenkins, who pronounced his Rs as Ws.

Roy: I leave this party without rancour.

Dennis: I thought you were taking Marquand with you.

In reply to Chambers:

What on earth gave you that idea, I'm the one that resigned from the Labour party of Tony Blair when they abandoned clause IV.

In reply to The New NickB:

It was a reefer jacket not a donkey jacket, and they were quite fashionable at the time. It was just the right wing press that went to town on it, incidently I met Michael Foot several times and found him to be a charming and intelligent conversationalist.

In reply to Al Evans:

I know it wasn't a donkey jacket, take issue with Festering Bore. It was brand new as well, Jill Craigie went out and bought it the day before.

In reply to The New NickB:

Dressed by his wife, this gets worse and worse.

In reply to Al Evans:

Did he actually say that in Parliament? Is it in Hansard?

In reply to Al Evans:

I think that Skinner was talking about the whole history of the Labour Party, actually. Suggesting that something went wrong when the wrong leaders got power is like saying Russia was communist until Stalin got power.

In reply to stroppygob:

He actually said liars IIRC, rather than crooks. I've no idea.