5th March 2010, 09:54 AM
Michael Foot was also a formidable scholar particularly on the life and works of Jonathan Swift. I recall some bloated shires Tory standing up in Parliament and accusing Foot and the then Labour party of pursuing 'Lilliputian' policies only for Foot to remind him that he had written a definitive study of 'Gullivers Travels' and could do without someone whose reading probably extended little further than the Daily Express lecturing Foot on the meaning of the word 'Lilliputian'. Foot's passing ends a generation of politicians who were both committed and literate....we see very few examples in either main party at present...
With peace and consolation hath dismist, And calm of mind all passion spent...