Great talk. I have a huge admiration for Denis Healey. An unusual politician in many respects and a very interesting personality. Great intellect but could be an insufferable intellectual snob. He wouldn't play the normal political games to acquire power. You could probably write several chapters on why that is so. Brilliant though he was I don't think he was leadership material. (but that could be said for other political leaders). What I admire the most is he sincerely wanted to make an unfair society fairer and his humanity often shone through.
just discovered this series on a cold Saturday night at home here in Western Australia....what a great find and a smart insightful reflection on some of the more interesting characters in UK politics over the last 30 years.....
You must be joking about Miliband. Labour moved slightly to the left when Ed was elected leader in tune with the PLP and membership. Although he was largely invisible for almost five years until the election, he was elected precisely as a break with the Blairite hegemony. David Miliband did not have depth of support in the PLP and was known for not cultivating good relations with MPs. The fact that Corbyn was elected in 2015 ( and I voted twice for him) reflected the direction of travel for the party a little more to the left. David Miliband would have represented a continuation of the Blair project which may have won three elections but at the price of hollowing out the Labour Party to the extent that there is a serious question mark over whether it can ever form a government again on its own under FPTP. Minority government propped up by the Liberal Democrats like 1924 ( then the Liberals) is its best hope for 2024.
@80's music Completely disagree. They picked the wrong brother .I like Ed as a politician but he does not possess the kudos and leadership qualities that his brother had and I would strongly argue that Ed was chosen more out of spite than substance as Blarism was being used as a scapegoat for Labour's defeat in 2010 .I still blame Gordon Brown for chickening out of holding an election in October 2008 when Labour were ahead in the polls . David Miliband would have been a far better leader during the Brexit Referendum .He would have campaigned vigorously to Remain and the knife edge majority may well have swung the other way.Compare and contrast this to the dithering Eurosceptic Jeremy Corbyn who hid behind the flag of "neutrality " giving Farage and co an open goal to groom the minds of Northern Labour voters with surreptitious xenophobic rhetoric .David Miliband or Andy Burnham if he had been elected leader would not have allowed this to happen
Thank you Steve, there was something in the character of Dennis that generated enormous warmth in others.That very human quality is very much reflected in your presentation.
Denis Healey could have been a brilliant academic. As a politician he didn't suffer fools gladly or want to spend time cultivating support. This is why he never became Labour leader.
Fascinating, but no reference to his military career which gave him ‘grit’, in my view. He had credibility as Defence Secretary partly because he understood the military in a way that predecessors and successors never did.
Rupert Lescott I was in the RAF when Healey was Defence Secretary and I will always remember that he put the Armed Forces onto a military salary instead of the pittance that they were getting until that time. A great politician and a great human being.
Dennis Healey, murderer of the TSR2, an airplane so advanced that it would have remained relevant into the late 90s. Despite his promises, as someone once said "His word wasn't worth the paper it wasn't written on." And for anyone who says "But it wasn't needed!"...it was so "not needed" that its role had to be replaced, at great cost, by the SEPECAT Jaguar, so the money was spent anyway, on top of the national shame of being played like a fool by America with the F111.... a idiotic diversion that also cost enough money to finish TSR2 & actually never resulted in any F111s being delivered!
Steve Richards is a keen political observer. This series is more an exercise for Richards though. His halting delivery is obviously because it is unscripted and extemporaneous. It is difficult to watch and listen to. Furthermore, in broadcast presentations, a thought or idea has to come every 40 seconds in order for it be an effective use of time and to keep audiences engaged. A lot of extraneous language should be avoided. Had Richards written and edited his presentations they would have been better.
Why on earth does he speak his sentences like items on a shopping list. Raising the inflections at the end of a sentence? Makes it difficult to concentrate on what he is actually saying.
certainly the worst Labour chancellor of all times, he laid the ground for Thatcherism. He also had little respect for democracy, as seen in the failure to adhere at all to the 1974 manifestos. Quite disappointing, given his previously radical youth. His speech at the 1945 Labour conference is worth reading, as quoted in Ralph Miliband's work Parliamentary Socialism, in which he called for a Labour government to deploy troops abroad to assist in socialist revolutions. A far cry from the man who sold arms to South Africa.
On the South African issue, the Wilson government cancelled the second batch of Buccaneer strike aircraft ordered when the previous Tory government were in office, when the South Africans wanted to new maritime patrol Nimrod aircraft, it was also refused. In fact the UK was the first to actually impose an arms embargo on South Africa. Only in 1977 was this extended by the UN, so for nearly a decade and a half the likes of France and Italy were selling to them. And Israel, illegally, after the embargo. Also given the firm stance the Wilson government took on Rhodesia makes a mockery of yet another far left Labour fantasy of collusion with either of those regimes. The hard left of Labour are good for one thing, factional fighting, certainly not winning elections, as we saw in late 2019 when they walked right into the trap Johnson had set for them. And the nation, not least those Labour was formed to help, suffer for it.
@@nerdsville2299 ralph miliband desired that representative democracy, which makes an easily mocked claim to democracy (rule of the people) should be replaced by, uh, actual democracy.
@@grahambuckerfield4640 but labour lost the last two elections because of infighting from the right. The labour right preferred Johnson as PM, otherwise they wouldn't have sabotaged Corbyn at every turn. Yet whenever the right is in power, the left are expected to shut up and sit down. Have you paid no attention to the events of the past two days? The right wing labour leader has spent his entire period in office bashing the left of his own party more than the Tories, with whom he has tried to find common ground at every turn. Starmer is trying to be another Kinnock, and we all know how useless he was as leader.
Healey was a child of the 1920s, he lived through the debacle of the MacDonald administration and its disastrous effect on The Labour Party. He succeeded in borrowing the money from the IMF and I’m sure that he felt that he had made the right call, given the facts it’s difficult to disagree with him.
Great talk. I have a huge admiration for Denis Healey. An unusual politician in many respects and a very interesting personality. Great intellect but could be an insufferable intellectual snob. He wouldn't play the normal political games to acquire power. You could probably write several chapters on why that is so. Brilliant though he was I don't think he was leadership material. (but that could be said for other political leaders). What I admire the most is he sincerely wanted to make an unfair society fairer and his humanity often shone through.
just discovered this series on a cold Saturday night at home here in Western Australia....what a great find and a smart insightful reflection on some of the more interesting characters in UK politics over the last 30 years.....
Absolutely love Richards' talks ... both informative and
interesting in equal measure. Well done, and thank-you.
Steve they are three people you have missed out on in your excellent programme Enoch Powell Norman Tebbitt and John Smith
Really interesting. Thank you so much.
Healey and David Milliband are definitely the two greatest leaders that Labour never had, funny how history repeats itself.
You must be joking about Miliband. Labour moved slightly to the left when Ed was elected leader in tune with the PLP and membership. Although he was largely invisible for almost five years until the election, he was elected precisely as a break with the Blairite hegemony. David Miliband did not have depth of support in the PLP and was known for not cultivating good relations with MPs. The fact that Corbyn was elected in 2015 ( and I voted twice for him) reflected the direction of travel for the party a little more to the left. David Miliband would have represented a continuation of the Blair project which may have won three elections but at the price of hollowing out the Labour Party to the extent that there is a serious question mark over whether it can ever form a government again on its own under FPTP. Minority government propped up by the Liberal Democrats like 1924 ( then the Liberals) is its best hope for 2024.
@80's music Completely disagree. They picked the wrong brother .I like Ed as a politician but he does not possess the kudos and leadership qualities that his brother had and I would strongly argue that Ed was chosen more out of spite than substance as Blarism was being used as a scapegoat for Labour's defeat in 2010 .I still blame Gordon Brown for chickening out of holding an election in October 2008 when Labour were ahead in the polls .
David Miliband would have been a far better leader during the Brexit Referendum .He would have campaigned vigorously to Remain and the knife edge majority may well have swung the other way.Compare and contrast this to the dithering Eurosceptic Jeremy Corbyn who hid behind the flag of "neutrality " giving Farage and co an open goal to groom the minds of Northern Labour voters with surreptitious xenophobic rhetoric .David Miliband or Andy Burnham if he had been elected leader would not have allowed this to happen
Steve Millerband
@@eightiesmusic1984 This comment has not dated well. I pray that Starmer can bring David Miliband back as Foreign Secretary.
@@eightiesmusic1984I don't mean to sound like an arse, but this comment has aged wonderfully.
Thank you Steve, there was something in the character of Dennis that generated enormous warmth in others.That very human quality is very much reflected in your presentation.
RUclips needs some more of your videos Steve
The inimitable Dennis Healey! The best!
At bilderbutg he sold his soul
Before my time really but Hugh Gaitskill always comes near top of these lists.
Absolutely Hugh!!
Hugh of Frognal Hampstead and wife Dora
Steve what happened to the episode on Rab Butler?
A Silly Billy
Could you do one on Michael Foot
morse div
@@danielmurray1490 ????
Div whats that?
Sad he never got the top job.
He should do Hugh Gaitskill John Smith and George Brown and Doug Hurd
Douglas Jay. of Hampstead?
So ironic that Healey became Chancellor and Crosland Foreign Secretary, thereby occupying the jobs coveted by the other. And a shame too.
Denis Healey could have been a brilliant academic. As a politician he didn't suffer fools gladly or want to spend time cultivating support. This is why he never became Labour leader.
Healey was the Cat that walked alone...
Why no mention of his very creditable war record? Beach Master at Anzio, there weren't many of those.
Fascinating, but no reference to his military career which gave him ‘grit’, in my view. He had credibility as Defence Secretary partly because he understood the military in a way that predecessors and successors never did.
Rupert Lescott
I was in the RAF when Healey was Defence Secretary and I will always remember that he put the Armed Forces onto a military salary instead of the pittance that they were getting until that time. A great politician and a great human being.
Dennis Healey, murderer of the TSR2, an airplane so advanced that it would have remained relevant into the late 90s. Despite his promises, as someone once said "His word wasn't worth the paper it wasn't written on." And for anyone who says "But it wasn't needed!"...it was so "not needed" that its role had to be replaced, at great cost, by the SEPECAT Jaguar, so the money was spent anyway, on top of the national shame of being played like a fool by America with the F111.... a idiotic diversion that also cost enough money to finish TSR2 & actually never resulted in any F111s being delivered!
Silly billy
Steve Richards is a keen political observer. This series is more an exercise for Richards though. His halting delivery is obviously because it is unscripted and extemporaneous. It is difficult to watch and listen to. Furthermore, in broadcast presentations, a thought or idea has to come every 40 seconds in order for it be an effective use of time and to keep audiences engaged. A lot of extraneous language should be avoided.
Had Richards written and edited his presentations they would have been better.
Why on earth does he speak his sentences like items on a shopping list. Raising the inflections at the end of a sentence? Makes it difficult to concentrate on what he is actually saying.
To be fair, he’s speaking unscripted, so has a structure and style that helps him. I think it works
@@barmychap Why should speaking unscripted cause him to speak like that?.Can you imagine Dennis Healey doing that.
Cynical bully
certainly the worst Labour chancellor of all times, he laid the ground for Thatcherism. He also had little respect for democracy, as seen in the failure to adhere at all to the 1974 manifestos. Quite disappointing, given his previously radical youth. His speech at the 1945 Labour conference is worth reading, as quoted in Ralph Miliband's work Parliamentary Socialism, in which he called for a Labour government to deploy troops abroad to assist in socialist revolutions. A far cry from the man who sold arms to South Africa.
Thank goodness you and your like are no longer in control of the Labour Party.
On the South African issue, the Wilson government cancelled the second batch of Buccaneer strike aircraft ordered when the previous Tory government were in office, when the South Africans wanted to new maritime patrol Nimrod aircraft, it was also refused. In fact the UK was the first to actually impose an arms embargo on South Africa. Only in 1977 was this extended by the UN, so for nearly a decade and a half the likes of France and Italy were selling to them. And Israel, illegally, after the embargo.
Also given the firm stance the Wilson government took on Rhodesia makes a mockery of yet another far left Labour fantasy of collusion with either of those regimes.
The hard left of Labour are good for one thing, factional fighting, certainly not winning elections, as we saw in late 2019 when they walked right into the trap Johnson had set for them.
And the nation, not least those Labour was formed to help, suffer for it.
@@nerdsville2299 ralph miliband desired that representative democracy, which makes an easily mocked claim to democracy (rule of the people) should be replaced by, uh, actual democracy.
@@grahambuckerfield4640 but labour lost the last two elections because of infighting from the right. The labour right preferred Johnson as PM, otherwise they wouldn't have sabotaged Corbyn at every turn. Yet whenever the right is in power, the left are expected to shut up and sit down. Have you paid no attention to the events of the past two days? The right wing labour leader has spent his entire period in office bashing the left of his own party more than the Tories, with whom he has tried to find common ground at every turn. Starmer is trying to be another Kinnock, and we all know how useless he was as leader.
Healey was a child of the 1920s, he lived through the debacle of the MacDonald administration and its disastrous effect on The Labour Party. He succeeded in borrowing the money from the IMF and I’m sure that he felt that he had made the right call, given the facts it’s difficult to disagree with him.