Michael Foot interview | 1983 General Election | Labour Party | TV Eye 1983
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- Опубликовано: 1 апр 2015
- Labour Leader Michael Foot speaks to Sir. Alastair Burnet about the future of Britain under a Labour Government, if his party wins the peoples vote in the up and coming general election.
Transmitted on 26/05/1983
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Quote: VT28994
Does anyone else miss the time when politicians were asked questions and then allowed to answer without being interrupted
Yes indeed. I do miss the likes of Brian Walden.
Robin Day rarely interrupted his interviewees either. That’s what I liked about him.
Yes. Now you get egomaniac shitehawks like Piers Morgan who love the sound of their own voice.
Partly, but then people like Michael Foot had the nimbleness of mind (unlike May and many others) to engage with the question.
I miss when they answered at all.
The days when ITV still had its regional tv companies and had quality political programmes.
TV Eye was made by Thames Television and aired across the country on every ITV region. Thames made some great programming in all genres. Shame in the 1991 franchise round they were dumped and in came Carlton, the pure shits of all ITV companies.
@@johnking5174 not forgetting Granada Television's excellent "World in Action".
Remember "Don't judge a book by it's cover" ? This is when the media took over, it's playground politics.
I always judge those who don't understand the correct use of apostrophes. The content of your comment isn't worth addressing so I won't.
But you did!
The youth WILL Have their say, and the others will die away. eventually :-)
Poor Michael Foot: he probably knew (in his heart) that he was 'on a hiding to nothing' and lacked the youthful energy (but not intellect) to become Prime Minister. He loved his party so much that he was prepared to endure that 'hiding' in a vain attempt to bring it together.
I LOVE how the presenter quietly corrects the question at the start. Instead of 'if there was an election...' (As on screen), he says 'if there were an election'.
Lol
Mores the pity that Presenters now have no such scruples. Just imagine if morons started to be corrected for starting a sentence with the word So.......
RIP, Michael Foot, a great man as well as articulate.
Paul Morris Why is that?
You mean Agent Boot of the KGB?
@@philipbrooks402 Agent Boot indeed! I recall Foot joking that he had Murdoch to thank for his kitchen/extension after The Sunday Times paid 50K damages back in 1995. Not Andrew Neil's finest hour.
But a very bad politician.
@@roddyteague6246 Foot was a Soviet agent, like Wilson.
He was a very decent man.
He was a Soviet spy.
for a plank
Agree or disagree with Michael Foot, he was a memorable politician with strong beliefs. There are certain politicians from all parties that I can listen to, Foot is one of them. That doesn't mean I always agree with what he said. Same with Conservative and Liberal politicians.
Tony Benn was another. I can't say I agreed with his politics, but his comments and speeches were always insightful and thought-provoking.
lovely intelligent man, relevant today
Richard Hunt intelligent and cultured, but was wrong on many things.
Foot the paid member of the kgb. Not relevant at all.
If I was my age now (51) instead of a pre-programmed Home Counties 11/12 year old idiot in '83 - a programming that went on pretty much all the way to Boris, I would have been an enthusiastic and active supporter of Michael Foot. And that would not have meant I was a socialist, just a pragmatist, which is what a healthy democracy is meant to be all about.
20-20 hindsight is a bugger ;)
Ah... A time when British politics was intellectual and not about sound bites, posing, repeating slogans and sprouting irrelevant nonsense about what you "believe/fear."
Yoda on DMT I know, both the Labour and Conservatives had Americans running their election campaigns this year. You could definitely see it. Especially in Miliband I thought.
Scuba Sausage I have no idea why any UK party would want an american running their campaign.
American politics is the worst of showmanship and the cult of personality.
I literally couldn't vote in the last election because there was nothing to vote for.
Yoda on DMT Yeah american politics is a bit over the top. I dont look at America in bad taste though, I think I would rather live there than most countries around the world. Its definitely better to live in than the UK, this place is miserable!
Actually I was born in the USA, might move one day!
Scuba Sausage To be honest mate, I'm thinking of jumping ship as well.
I don't think I'd go to another western or westernised country since it will be same "s**t," different smell.
I'm looking at Japan (westernised but doesn't have the same problems and a nice mix of modern and traditional), or maybe St. Helena (in the middle of nowhere, beautiful islands and when the airport opens, there should be a bit of money to make from tourism). Other than that, maybe the Caribbean or somewhere else in the far East.
All I know it's that Britain is dead and it won't recover. Best to get out while you can.
Yoda on DMT I wouldnt say Britain is dead. Just miserable, theres too much health and safety, not enough open space, not enough hot weather (although we are having a fantastic summer). Britain also has free healthcare which I massively appreciate. My health insurance will be enough money for a flight back to the UK!
I have lived in a few countries now, the UK, Holland, Fiji and Thailand. The UK is the most boring but also the most secure! Living in Thailand was awesome but only if you bring your own money!
19:40 Foot in favour of Brexit
The left of the Labour Party had been in favour of that during the 1970's and 80's. Including Corbyn
As was Tony Benn. always hated the EU/common market.
god the eighties were relentlessly beige
Only TV studios. Look at some of the fashions and record covers!
the eighties were awesome
the 80s was the BEST
I get the feeling that Foot did not respect the voters. He dismisses the polls out of hand, then proceeds to (what feels like) lecture the electorate on why his point of view is the best and does little to articulate how he is infact representing the best representing the interests of the electorate.
A towering intellect and a superb orator. He would be wasted in the Commons today among the braying donkeys and over grown children. It's genuinely sad that he's best remembered for something he never did_wearing what stupid journalists believed was a donkey jacket at the Cenotaph in 1981. 😨
Precisely
Those were the days, 10 minutes of incredibly dry statistics followed by a rational discussion
His image was terrible in the era where he was up against Duran Duran and Kajagoogoo
Haha true!
skintrade I voted for Duran Duran as I was too shy, shy to vote for Kajagoogoo.
***** No they didn't, only the insular, individualistic right wing of Southern England thought so.
+skintrade You wasted it. I voted for the Doolies...or maybe it was the Nolans?
I wasn't alive at the time
Would have made a good Sociology Professor.
R.I.P. Michael Foot. A Great man.
Stouffer Oh fgs he wasn’t communist.
Michael Foote was a great man and a man of principal.
Yes .... oh and he had an affair with a young researcher in the early 1970s, who was 35 years younger than him. The affair lasted a year and nearly ended his marriage. So, a man of principal? ..... Maybe
@@johnking5174 what a pathetic comment.
@@chrisbayes2972 It is the truth, and truth hurts doesn't it? I am no Thatcherite, but I believe in truth
@@johnking5174 Fair enough, I think Foot was a great parliamentarian and orator. He may well have had an affair, but don't really see what you gain by highlighting this.
@@chrisbayes2972 Michael Foot was no doubt a well meaning man, sadly not the man that should have been selected to lead the Labour Party in 1980. However, when Michael Foot campaigned for a decent society etc, then surely he was not being slightly hypocritical on his part, as he had an affair, something hypocritical. Now, once again I am not an ardent Thatcherite, but I am proud to be a floating voter, except I only ever float between Labour and Lib Dems, as I have never vote conservative, as I am, and always will be centre-left in my politics.
Interesting to see - I missed it at the time as I was out of the UK!
I have just watched it again asking myself a horrendous question. Who would I vote for if the choice had been Foot or Boris Johnson?
I think Michael's views on nuclear weapons were not credible in realpolitik, although I
accept that they were genuinely held.
RIP Michael Foot highly intelligent and intellectual individual!🌹
Indeed. Supremely well read and well bred
Media criticise Labour in 1983 for wanting to leave EU. 36 years later the Tories want to get us out and have ditched, by choice, all the arguments they made of why Labour was wrong to want to come out.
Spot on. He was right. Tony Benn also said correctly that the EEC would morph into a federalist superstate with one currency and one Parliament. They were laughed at then. Well they were proved right and it's really sad they never lived to see that referendum 3 years ago.
I liked Michael Foot until I met him. I did not like Margaret Thatcher until I met her.
What changed your mind?
The donkey jacket
@@DJSwezzleMusic Well remembered. He always maintained it wasn't a donkey jacket. Hee Haw.
In reality Foot only did so dismally in 1983 (27.6%) because the SDP-Liberals- a large proportion of whom were centre-Left ex-Labour voters- did so well for a change (25.4%). New Labour hardly looks any better in 2005 (35.2%) or 2010 (29.6%).
Jeremy Corbyn, by contrast won 40% in 2017.
@@saynotowoke.8492 That and the back-sliding on Brexit too
And 33% in 2019! New Labour did much better with 42% in 1997 and 2001. 2005 was tighter but still 8% ahead of 1983
Not so sure. By the look of the polls here it looks like the 10% the alliance gained came equally from the tories and labour
This is the British Bernie Sanders
Sanders couldn't carry Foot's shoes.
Disagree with everything he says but Michael Foot was highly intelligent, a good writer and an able parliamentarian....simply no-one of that calibre in current labour party....
At least you knew what he stood for that's more you can say for starmer and his red tories ..
When did politicians stop answering questions and start lying?
90s
Poll looks familiar.
The man was so naive in terms of nuclear weapons...The Soviets have certainly loved him.
Corbynism back to the future and we all know what happened
A master of erudition, Mr Foot
Jesus. Now we’ve got Boris, Matt Hancock, Michael Gove.
I’m nostalgic for real, articulate and intelligent politicians
I would've gladly voted for Michael Foot had I been around in 1983, sure I would've been on the losing side of things but I don't care, I think Foot would've been a much better Prime Minister than Thatcher
@Ian Brown i read it a while ago; i remember it being okay-better than seeling off our country to foreigners like thatcher
When did tv decay
this guy was similar to Jeremy Corbyn
He was a Soviet agent.
Not agent ,but certainly supportive.. 300 SS-20 aimed at Britain and he still insist on removing the American ones from Europe.. The man was living in a dream world, his philosphy was totally unrealistic.... He got his ass kicked in the elections..
THEY SAVED MICHAEL FOOT'S BRAIN!
...and transplanted it into Jeremy Corbyn.
+pinz2022 Like Jeremy Corbyn he was a nice man but also unelectable.
Come again?
Jeremy Corbyn isn't a patch on Michael Foot.
Steve Barclay No he’s not that’s you and the Tories especially May.
Corbyn is half the man Michael Foot was
Even thought he wasn't the best leader he was still head and shoulders above jeremy corbyn in intellect and gravitas !!
AT 5:20 he decries the fact that NATO's defence doctrine was one of flexible response whereby in some dire situations NATO would resort to nuclear weapons first. The Warsaw Pact had a 'no 1st use' doctrine which at 1st sight seems morally superior & was always a bit of useful bait for the terminally naive. The reason they could proclaim this doctrine is because they had massive superiority in conventional forces in Europe. If war had broken out & it was purely conventional in nature then the Warsaw Pact would certainly be victorious. Was Foot oblivious to this? Callaghan & Healey certainly were not.
At 6:42 Foot reassures us that he supports UK membership of NATO & offers Bertrand Russell as someone with the same view i.e. unilateralist but pro NATO
Russell was anti-NATO. To quote him "So long as our territory is used by American
forces the Russians have a motive for attacking us. The supposed protection we
derive from NATO is utterly illusory”.
7:35 Foot bizarrely repudiates the notion that there's a conflict between unilateralism & multilateralism. He thinks the 2 can go together. This is a craven notion quite apart from being logically bogus -after all if the 2 go together then it's clearly just multilateral.
When discussing American commitment to defending the UK if it put American cities at risk which it clearly would (we can all agree on that) Burnet (7:52) opined that the US would be very reluctant to offer us any help if we were telling them to get out. Foot responds
He was a blue print for Corbyn and led the Labour Party into the wilderness years. Corbyn will do the same.
NATO's Able Archer exercise, which we are now told pushed the paranoid Andropov close to the brink, occurred a few months after this interview.
@Ian Brown I long ago changed my opinion of Corbyn and very much hope he will be the next PM.
This man is a leg end.
Foot as prime minister would be funny
Following the Falklands it was lunacy to think that the public would vote for a Labour party that supported unilateral nuclear disarmament and leaving the EEC (as it then was).
Well they didnt even work as a deterrent then?
@@QueenJneeuQ No but the Falklands invasion reminded people of the threat we faced. If Argentina were daft enough to take us on then why not a nation with nuclear capabilities next time? Thats why Thatcher took the approach she did.
Just the same 32 yrs on...
What a shame this intelligent, eloquent and thoughtful man didn't become Prime Minister. Just imagine how different and how much better things would have turned out if Britain's disastrous experiment with neo liberalism had been nipped in the bud.
He was unelectable.
Foot as prime minister would have meant a return to overly powerful trade unions, eternal strikes, mass piqueting, massive inflation, retention of inefficient moribund industries, probably import controls and elements of a siege economy. I.e. an economic disaster of epic proportions
why cant he just say 'system' not 'systeem'
I wonder if they had as much scrutiny for The Conservatives
yes they did
Ah better politics and better times!
He kicked out Militant, who loved Labour!
I think that was Kinnock, wasn't it?
Corbyns father
Never agreed with his politics but I'd take him over Corbyn.
Why? Surely Foot and Corbyn are the same mind and attitude?
@@johnking5174 I think probably because Foot wouldn't attend commemorative events for terrorists... generally I think that Foot was a man who loved country over ideology, whereas Corbyn is a man who loves his ideology over his country.
@@thomasatkinson7319 Good point. I always felt Michael Foot was a great debater in the Commons, I remember hearing him rip to pieces David Steel in 1979. Sadly he could not bring that great debater tactic to as leader of his party.
@@johnking5174 Unfortunately not. Michael Foot acts as proof that popularity with the electorate cannot be won on high intelligence, good intentions and debating prowess only.
@@thomasatkinson7319 Who would you say would be a good Labour leader for 2019?
The poor man was fighting a totally biased press.
I watched it happen .
Dobry den Boot.
Quote from an article in The Guardian.
I have just come across Norman Mailer's account of watching Foot in the 1983 election, when the American arch-conservative admitted being moved by the passion of these words of Foot's: 'We are not here in this world to find elegant solutions, pregnant with initiative, or to serve the ways and modes of profitable progress. No, we are here to provide for all those who are weaker and hungrier, more battered and crippled than ourselves. That is our only certain good and great purpose on earth, and if you ask me about those insoluble economic problems that may arise if the top is deprived of their initiative, I would answer, To hell with them. The top is greedy and mean and will always find a way to take care of themselves. They always do.'
It is difficult to listen to this man even now.
How? He spoke with knowledge and authority,two things sadly lacking with our current batch
Peter Green authority, but wrong on inflation, nuclear weapons and patriotism in general
Foot was a Soviet agent, like Wilson.
2023 and nothing has changed. One crappy 'experiment' after another.
The great parliamentarian Michael Foot.....too decent a man for swathes of the electorate alas.
No, just far too left wing...
An unbelievably terrible politician
Lovely leftie but his brother, Dingle, should have been leader. Dingle for PM
Labour need someone like him Today Instead of Keir Starmer. We Need A Working Class Leader!
Foot wasn't working class, not even close. He came from a well to do Liberal family, much like Tony Benn. Callaghan and Healey were far more working class.
Starmer is far more a working class man. He’s just well educated
@@mani-rc2tv Sir Keir is a discount Tony Blair. Deputy Leaders are reserved for working class MPs ex. Angela Rayner, John Prescott. Unfortunately, Labour were scraping at the bottom of the barrel with Rayner.
What a horribly biased set of opinion poll questions.
The best Prime Minister we never had?
No, he would have been a terrible prime minister. All his intellectual qualities set aside, he showed during his short tenure as Labour leader that he had no real leadership qualities. Plus the policies he proposed in 1983 would have meant large scale government intervention in the economy, spending billions of taxpayer pounds bailing out failing and inefficient companies and giving power back to the trade unions (who showed beyond any doubt in 1978/79 that they were not to be trusted with that power), i.e. the recipe for economic disaster.
No that was John Smith.
He would have made Britain so much weaker bankrupted uk with Crazy spending no more nuclear weapons would have made us more weak in defence I could go on
@@kevinlongman007
I thought it was Tony Benn or was it Corbyn. Maybe Neil Kinnock. Alan Johnson? There’s plenty of Labour politicians that have had the tag of ‘best Prime Minister we never had’ but the big problem is that you have to win elections first and given who Labour have picked as leader over the years they clearly have no desire to win elections. It’s always about ‘the fight’ and ‘the struggle’. If you win an election does that mean the fight is over?
@@cookerldc No as i said it was John Smith and had he not died in 1994 he would have become Prime Minister in 1997 instead of Blair.
The 1983 labour party manifesto was known as the longest suicide note in history 🤣
Surprisingly it was Gerald Kaufman (Labour MP & paedophile) who called it this!
Arselicker Burnet
Foot would have won without sdlp
No he would have lost but not as badly
Ian Brown - The British people still remembered the 78-79 winter or discontent, the economy was starting to rebound and Foot came off as too appeasing to the Soviets. Plus Thatcher was riding high off the Falklands. It was a lot like the US with Reagan in 1984. They were not going to lose.
Ian Brown - yeah and it took until 1997 for Labour to get back (or New Labour). Though if more traditional John Smith had lived he might have won in say 1997.
Rip mr boot (KGB)
I am in my 49th year & still have a lot of time for Mr Michael Foot. I say the same for Viscount Wedgwood & Mr Michael Shaw. I was a teenager back then & have always prefered listening to orators, rather than; pardon the language, "slappers" or "fish wives" which we seem to have in the mother of Parliament's at present. The British Labour Party needs again, an Orator. NOT another Tony Blair or a communist.
Who's the communist? 🤔
Excuse my ignorance but who is Michael Shaw? Never heard of him!
Wurzel Gummidge...
Healey would have made a better leader.
Hard to imagine anyone doing a worse job than Foot...
@@ThomasDanielsen1000 true
Sadly Foot was out of his depth as Labour leader...Denis Healey would have been a far better choice. We made the same mistake in 2010 when we picked Ed over David Miliband and now look at who we have got...Corbyn (or Foot mark II).
I’m no fan of Corbyn (I voted for Burnham and Smith), but there’s a huge double standard here. If Denis Healey won the leadership, and the leftwing of the party broke off and formed a new party, would people have blamed Healey or the left wingers? It seems that when the rightwing controls the party, the leftwing is expected to fall in line; but when the leftwing controls the party, the rightwing threatens to break up the party ... and then has the gall to blame the leftwing for destroying the party. This double standard is completely ridiculous and needs to stop. (Sorry for ranting)
You're not ranting Charles and your argument is sound. The 1983 Election Manifesto was ahead of its time in many respects and the problems we suffer now have multiplied.
stevebbuk The longest suicide note in history you mean? An apt name considering we only won 209 seats and 27% of the vote.
But we would have had no financial crash, no doubling of the prison population, no Iraq war, no housing crisis..need I go on?
stevebbuk Indeed but the fact is we did NOT win...and it took Labour another 14 years to get ourselves into a position where we would be seen as creditable enough to win a general election.
Thank God he never got the top job - we would have been sitting ducks for the Commies. Seems like a nice chap though. Nice guys don’t make great leaders.