Michael Foot

It's with sadness that I read yesterday, Michael Foot died aged 96. For those of us who started voting in the 80s he was a larger than life figure and regardless of whether you agreed with him or not you have to agree that he was a superb speaker and transparently passionate and clear about his views (current politicians take note!).

Foot was an ardent defender of free speech, he was also famously anti-war and anti-nuclear weapons as well as being famously scruffy as proper intellectuals often are. I think he was also ahead of his time in terms of recognising religion as a big problem with regard to free speech, particularly Islam; he was very outspoken regarding the Salman Rushdie affair labelling Islam as "the great persisting threat to the world", I can think of quite a few "persisting threats" to our world but I'd certainly agree with him that Islam (in fact all religions) would be on my list as well. I also learn from reading the various obituaries that Foot was an Atheist, I never realised that, but it makes a lot of sense.