The Ginger Nut

Alexander McKibbin has an entertaining TCW piece - a spoof interview with Neil Kinnock. A number of TCW commenters seem to have been taken in by it.


In conversation with yesterday’s men: Lord Kinnock

In the first of an occasional series, TCWDF talks with individuals who made headlines in the 1980s. Today, The Right Honourable The Lord Kinnock.

FOR individuals of a certain age, mention the name Roy Jenkins and they will almost always recall him as being ‘the best Prime Minister we never had’. This is a description which could be equally easily bestowed on the person I am about to meet, Neil Kinnock.

One of the most influential politicians of his generation, he came to epitomise the acceptable face of Labour. Perceptive, articulate, conciliatory and with an unrivalled gift for oratory, he could charm the proverbial birds from the trees. He led Labour through the tumultuous battles with Militant Tendency and in 1985 delivered his most memorable conference address lambasting ‘the grotesque chaos of a Labour council hiring taxis to scuttle round the City handing out redundancy notices to its own workers’.

After leaving Westminster, and still keen to serve the public, he moved to Brussels, serving as a European Commissioner from 1995-2004 and as Vice President of the European Commission between 1999 and 2004. He has been a Labour Party peer since 2005. Politics and policy run deeply through him.

At his request, we meet near his West London home in a pub somewhat ironically called The Ginger Nut.


The whole piece is well worth reading, both because it's amusing and as a reminder of Kinnock's calibre.


Does he still feel embarrassed about falling over on Brighton beach in 1983?

The mood switches from jocular to icy. He slams his beer on to the table, spilling it over his half-eaten pack of low-calorie scampi fries.

‘Absolutely typical! You media folk cannot help yourselves, can you? Never let anything drop, will you? Gutless and fixated on demonising socialism, that’s all you’re interested in, a few more sensationalist headlines. Why don’t you go and get a proper job?’