Paul Mackintosh Foot (8 November 1937 in
PalestinePalestine is a conventional name used, among others, to describe a geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands.As a geographical term, Palestine can also refer to 'ancient Palestine,' an area...
– 18 July 2004 at Stansted Airport) was a
BritishThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
investigative journalist, political campaigner, author, and long-time member of the
Socialist Workers PartyThe Socialist Workers Party claims to be the largest far left party in Britain. It participates in a number of campaigns such as Unite Against Fascism and the Stop the War Coalition...
(SWP). He was the grandson of
Isaac Foot-External links:*-Early life:Isaac Foot was born in Plymouth, the son of a carpenter and undertaker, and educated at Plymouth Public School and the Hoe Grammar School, which he left at the age of 14. He then worked at the Admiralty in London, but returned to Plymouth to train as a solicitor...
, who had been a Liberal MP, and the son of Hugh Foot (who was the last Governor of
CyprusCyprus , officially the Republic of Cyprus , is a Eurasian island country situated in the eastern Mediterranean, south of Turkey and west of Syria and Lebanon....
and, as Lord Caradon, the British Ambassador to the
United NationsThe United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and the achieving of world peace...
from 1964 to 1970). He was the nephew of
Michael FootMichael Mackintosh Foot is a British politician and writer. He was leader of the Labour Party from 1980 to 1983.-Family:Foot's father, Isaac Foot, was a solicitor and founder of the Plymouth law firm, Foot and Bowden...
, former leader of the
Labour PartyThe Labour Party is a centre-left political party in the United Kingdom. Founded at the start of the 20th century, it has been seen since 1920 as the principal party of the Left in England, Scotland and Wales, but not Northern Ireland, where it has only recently begun to organise again...
, and was educated at
Shrewsbury SchoolShrewsbury School is a public school located in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England. It is one of the Clarendon Schools, the original nine great English public schools as defined by the Public Schools Act 1868, and is now a member of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference. Shrewsbury School...
, an independent school in
ShrewsburyShrewsbury is the county town of Shropshire, in the West Midlands region of England. Lying on the River Severn, it is home to 70,689 inhabitants, and is the primary settlement and headquarters of Shropshire Council...
,
ShropshireShropshire , alternatively known as Salop or abbreviated, in print only, Shrops, is a county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders Wales to the west. Shropshire is one of England's most rural and sparsely populated counties with a population density of 91/km²...
, and at
University College, OxfordUniversity College , is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England...
.
Early life
Foot spent much of his youth at
Trematon CastleTrematon Castle is situated near Saltash in Cornwall, United Kingdom. It is similar in style to Restormel Castle, with a 12th century keep. Trematon Castle overlooks Plymouth Sound and was built by Reginald de Valle Torta on the ruins of an earlier Roman fort: it is a motte-and-bailey castle and...
, his father's home in Cornwall. He was sent "to a ludicrously snobbish prep school,
LudgroveLudgrove School is a private boarding preparatory school for about 200 boys aged 7 or 8 to 13. It is situated in the civil parish of Wokingham Without, adjoining the town of Wokingham in the English county of Berkshire.-History:...
, and then to an only slightly less absurd public school,
ShrewsburyShrewsbury School is a public school located in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England. It is one of the Clarendon Schools, the original nine great English public schools as defined by the Public Schools Act 1868, and is now a member of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference. Shrewsbury School...
." Contemporaries at Shrewsbury included
Richard IngramsRichard Ingrams is a British journalist, a co-founder and second editor of the British satirical magazine Private Eye, and now editor of The Oldie magazine.-Career:...
,
Willie RushtonWilliam George Rushton, commonly known as Willie Rushton was an English cartoonist, satirist, comedian, actor and performer who co-founded the Private Eye satirical magazine.- School and army :Rushton was educated at Shrewsbury School, where Christopher Booker, Paul Foot and Richard...
and several other friends who would later become involved in
Private Eye.
Anthony Chenevix-TrenchAnthony Chenevix-Trench is best known as the Headmaster of Eton College from 1964–1970.He was educated at Shrewsbury School and Christ Church, Oxford. He fought in the Second World War and attained the rank of Captain in 1939 in the Royal Artillery...
was his Housemaster at Shrewsbury between 1950 and 1955, a time when corporal punishment in all schools was commonplace. In adult life, Foot exposed the ritual beatings that Chevenix-Trench had given. As
Nick CohenNick Cohen is a British journalist, author, and political commentator. He is currently a columnist for The Observer and the TV critic for the magazine Standpoint. He used to write for the Evening Standard and the New Statesman, until he departed and sued the magazine...
wrote in Foot's obituary in
The ObserverThe Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In about the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a left-liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-History:The...
:
Exposing him in
Private Eye was one of Foot's happiest days in journalism. He received hundreds of congratulatory letters from the child abuser's old pupils, many of whom were then prominent in British life.
After his national service in Jamaica, Foot was reunited with Ingrams at Oxford , where he read Law, and wrote for
IsisThe Isis Magazine is the longest-running independent student magazine in England. It was established at Oxford University in 1892 . Traditionally a rival to the student newspaper Cherwell, it was finally acquired by the latter's parent company, OSPL, in the late 1990s.In its long history Isis has...
, one of the student publications at the University.
Early career
In 1961 Foot went to Glasgow to join the
Daily RecordThe Daily Record is a Scottish tabloid newspaper based in Glasgow. It has been the best-selling daily paper in Scotland for many years with a paid circulation of 308,454 . Current circulation is less than half the all-time high of 743,000 achieved in 1983 when it enjoyed the second highest market...
where he met workers from shipyards and engineering who had joined the
Young SocialistsThe Labour Party Young Socialists was the name of the youth section of the British Labour Party from 1965 until 1993. The LPYS was the most successful of the youth sections of the Labour Party in the post war period, at one point having nearly 600 branches and attendances at its national...
. He read, for the first time,
Karl MarxKarl Heinrich Marx was a Germanphilosopher, political economist, historian, political theorist, sociologist, communist and revolutionary, whose ideas are credited as the foundation of modern communism...
, Lenin,
Rosa LuxemburgRosa Luxemburg was a Polish-Jewish-German Marxist theorist, socialist philosopher, and revolutionary for the Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania, the German SPD, the Independent Social Democratic Party and the Communist Party of Germany.In 1914, after the SPD supported German...
, Trotsky, and the biography of Trotsky by
Isaac DeutscherIsaac Deutscher was a British Marxist historian, journalist and political activist of Polish-Jewish birth. He is best known as a biographer of Leon Trotsky and Joseph Stalin and as a commentator on Soviet affairs...
which was just being published. In Glasgow he met the 'Socialist Review' group, led by 'an ebullient Palestinian Jew' called
Tony CliffTony Cliff was a Trotskyist revolutionary activist. Born Yigael Gluckstein to a Jewish Zionist family in Palestine, Cliff moved to Britain, becoming a Trotskyist and rejecting Zionism from a Marxist perspective...
. Cliff argued that Russia was state capitalist and that Russian workers were cut off from economic and political power as much as, if not more than, those in the West. Persuaded by what he heard and saw in Glasgow, he joined the International Socialists, organisational forerunner of the Socialist Workers Party (SWP), in 1963. "Of all the many lessons I learnt in those three years in Glasgow" he wrote later, "the one which most affected my life was a passing remark by Rosa Luxemburg. She predicted that, however strong people's socialist commitment, as soon as they are involved even to the slightest degree in managing the system on behalf of capitalists, they will be lost to the socialist cause." He wrote for
Socialist WorkerSocialist Worker is the name of several socialist/communist newspapers. It is a daily Web site and biweekly printed newspaper published by the International Socialist Organization in the United States, a weekly published by the Socialist Workers Party in the United Kingdom, a biweekly published by...
throughout his career and was its editor from 1972 until 1978. He continued to write a regular column for the
Socialist Worker until he died.
Apart from his greatly respected work as a campaigning journalist, he was also known as an extraordinarily entertaining and gripping orator. He spoke at thousands of meetings for hundreds of left-wing and socialist causes, frequently trying to persuade audiences of the relevance of revolutionary socialism.
Newspapers and magazines
In 1964 he went to work on the new
Sun and into a department called
Probe. The idea was to investigate and publish stories behind the news. The whole Probe team however resigned after six months. "The man in charge turned out to be a former
Daily Express City editor." He left to work, part-time, on the
Mandrake column on the
Sunday TelegraphThe Sunday Telegraph is a British broadsheet newspaper, founded in 1961. It is the sister paper of The Daily Telegraph, but is run separately, with a different editorial staff....
. He had previously contributed articles to
Private Eye since 1964 but decided, in February 1967, to take a cut in salary and join the staff of
Private Eye on a full-time basis, working with its editor,
Richard IngramsRichard Ingrams is a British journalist, a co-founder and second editor of the British satirical magazine Private Eye, and now editor of The Oldie magazine.-Career:...
and its new, sole owner
Peter CookPeter Edward Cook was a British satirist, writer and comedian. He is widely regarded as the leading figure in the British satire boom of the 1960s...
. When asked about the decision later Foot would say he could not resist the prospect of two whole pages with complete freedom to write whatever he liked. "Writing for
Private Eye is the only journalism I have ever been engaged in which is pure enjoyment. It is free publishing of the most exhilarating kind." Foot got on very well with Cook, only realising after the latter's death in 1995 how much they had in common: "We both were born in the same week, into the same sort of family. His father, like mine, was a colonial servant rushing round the world hauling down the imperial flag. Both fathers shipped their eldest sons back to public school education in England. We both spent our school holidays with popular aunts and uncles in the West Country." Foot's first stint at
Private Eye lasted 5 years until 1972, when he became editor of the
Socialist Worker.
Six years later he returned to
Private Eye but was poached in 1979 by the editor of the
Daily Mirror,
Mike MolloyMike Molloy is a British author and former newspaper editor and cartoonist.Born in Hertfordshire, Molloy studied at Ealing Junior School and the Ealing School of Art before working at the Sunday Pictorial followed by the Daily Sketch, where he began drawing cartoons...
, who offered him a weekly "investigative" page of his own with only one condition attached: that he was not to make propaganda for the SWP. Foot stayed at the
Daily Mirror for fourteen years, during which time
Private Eye occasionally made fun of him, calling him 'Pol Fot' (a pun on left-wing extremist
Pol PotSaloth Sar or Minh Hai, , widely known as Pol Pot, , was the leader of the Cambodian communist movement known as the Khmer Rouge and was Prime Minister of Democratic Kampuchea from 1976–1979....
). Foot finally fell out with the new
Mirror editor,
David BanksDavid Banks is a former British newspaper editor.-Early life:He attended Boteler Grammar School in Warrington.-Career:...
, after the death of
Robert MaxwellIan Robert Maxwell MC was a Czechoslovakian-born British media proprietor and former Member of Parliament , who rose from poverty to build an extensive publishing empire, which collapsed after his death as a result of the fraudulent transactions he had committed to support his business empire,...
, and a boardroom coup that introduced a programme of "union-bashings and sackings". He left the Mirror in 1993 when the paper refused to print articles critical of their new management (in response to which, Foot distributed copies of the articles to passers-by outside the Mirror's headquarters). He then rejoined
Private Eye for a third time, with its new editor,
Ian HislopIan David Hislop is a British satirist, writer, broadcaster and editor of the magazine Private Eye. He has appeared on many radio and television programmes, most notably as a team captain on the BBC current affairs quiz Have I Got News for You.-Early life:Hislop was born in Mumbles, Swansea in...
. From 1993, he also contributed a regular column to
The GuardianThe Guardian is a British daily newspaper owned by the Guardian Media Group. Founded in 1821, it is unique among major British newspapers in being owned by a foundation .The Guardian Weekly, which circulates worldwide, provides a compact digest of four newspapers...
.
Politics
He unsuccessfully fought the
Birmingham Stechford by-electionThe Birmingham Stechford by-election, in Birmingham, on 31 March 1977 was held after Labour Member of Parliament Roy Jenkins resigned his seat following his appointment as President of the European Commission. A seat that had been solidly Labour since its formation in 1950, it was won by Andrew...
in 1977 for the SWP and was a
Socialist AllianceThe Socialist Alliance was a left-wing electoral alliance operating in England in existence between 1992 and 2005 and is currently a small grouping with a mutual affiliation with the larger Alliance for Green Socialism....
candidate for several offices from 2001 onwards. In the
HackneyThe London Borough of Hackney is a London borough of north London, and forms part of inner London.Between 1999 and 2001 serious concerns were expressed about Hackney's performance as a council by the Audit Commission, and many aspects of council services were failing...
mayoral election in 2002 he came third, beating the Liberal Democrat candidate. He also stood unsuccessfully in the
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
region for the Respect coalition in the
2004 European electionsThe European Parliament election, 2004 was the UK part of the European Parliament election, 2004. It was held on 10 June. It was the first European election to be held in the United Kingdom using postal-only voting in four areas. It coincided with local and London elections.The Conservative Party...
.
Awards and campaign journalism
Paul Foot was named journalist of the year in the
What The Papers SayWhat The Papers Say was the second longest-running programme on British television after The Sky at Night. The programme discussed, often with humour , how different newspapers had covered the previous week's main news stories.-Format:The format, consisting of readings from the previous week's...
Awards in 1972 and 1989 and campaigning journalist of the year in the 1980
British Press AwardsThe British Press Awards is an annual ceremony that celebrates the best of British journalism. Established in the 1970s, honours are voted on by a panel of journalists and newspaper executives...
; he won the
George Orwell Prize for JournalismThe Orwell Prize is regarded as the pre-eminent British prize for political writing. Every year, two prizes are awarded: one for a book, and the other for political journalism...
in 1995 with Tim Laxton, won the journalist of the decade prize in the
What The Papers Say Awards in 2000, and the
James CameronMark James Walter Cameron was a prominent British journalist, in whose memory the annual James Cameron Memorial Lecture is given.-Early life:...
special posthumous Award in 2004.
His best known work was in the form of campaign journalism, including his exposure of
corruptPolitical corruption is the use of legislated powers by government officials for illegitimate private gain. Misuse of government power for other purposes, such as repression of political opponents and general police brutality, is not considered political corruption. Neither are illegal acts by...
architectAn architect is trained and licensed in planning and designing buildings, and participates in supervising the construction of a building. Etymologically, architect derives from the Latin architectus, itself derived from the Greek arkhitekton , i.e. chief builder...
John PoulsonJohn Garlick Llewellyn Poulson was a disgraced British architect and Freemason who caused a major political scandal when his use of bribery and connections to senior politicians were disclosed in 1972. The highest-ranking figure to be forced out was Conservative Home Secretary Reginald Maudling...
and, most notably, his prominent role in the campaigns to overturn the convictions of the
Birmingham SixThe Birmingham Six were six men—Hugh Callaghan, Patrick Joseph Hill, Gerard Hunter, Richard McIlkenny, William Power and John Walker—sentenced to life imprisonment in 1975 in the United Kingdom for the Birmingham pub bombings...
and the
Bridgewater FourThe Bridgewater Four was the collective name given to the quartet of men who were tried and found guilty of killing teenage paper boy Carl Bridgewater . He was shot in the head at close range. After 18 years their convictions were overturned...
, which succeeded in 1991 and 1997 respectively. Foot claimed that the former British intelligence officer,
Colin WallaceJohn Colin Wallace is a former British soldier and psychological warfare operative who was one of the members of the 'Clockwork Orange' project, which is alleged to have been an attempt to smear a number of British politicians in the early 1970s.-Early life:...
had been framed, in
Northern IrelandNorthern Ireland is a part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and it is situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
during the 1970s, and the collusion between British forces and Loyalist paramilitaries.
Foot took a particular interest in the conviction of
Abdel Basset Ali al-MegrahiAbdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi is an alleged former Libyan intelligence officer, head of security for Libyan Arab Airlines, and director of the Centre for Strategic Studies in Tripoli, Libya...
for the Lockerbie bombing, firmly believing Megrahi to have been a victim of a
miscarriage of justiceA miscarriage of justice primarily is the conviction and punishment of a person for a crime he or she did not commit. The term can also apply to errors in the other direction—"errors of impunity", and to civil case. Most criminal justice systems have some means to overturn, or "quash", a...
at the
Pan Am Flight 103 bombing trialThe Pan Am Flight 103 bombing trial began on 3 May 2000, 11 years, 4 months and 13 days after the blowing up of Pan Am Flight 103 on 21 December 1988...
..
He also worked tirelessly, though without success, to gain a posthumous
pardonA pardon is the forgiveness of a crime and the penalty associated with it. It is granted by a head of state, such as a monarch or president, or by a competent church authority. Clemency is an associated term, meaning the lessening of the penalty of the crime without forgiving the crime itself. The...
for
James HanrattyJames Hanratty was the eighth-to-last person in Britain to be hanged for murder after being convicted of carrying out the 1961 "A6 murder" committed on the main path at Maulden Wood. The guilt of the later convicts was never in doubt, but Hanratty's guilt has been disputed...
, who was hanged in 1962 for the A6 murder. It was a position he maintained even after DNA evidence in 1999 seemed to confirm Hanratty's guilt.
Death and memorials
Foot, a resident of
Stoke NewingtonStoke Newington is a district in the London Borough of Hackney. It is north-east of Charing Cross.-Boundaries:In modern terms, Stoke Newington can be roughly defined by the N16 postcode area . Its southern boundary with Dalston is quite ill-defined too...
, died of a
heart attackMyocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, is the interruption of blood supply to part of the heart, causing some heart cells to die...
while waiting at Stansted Airport to begin a family holiday in Ireland. He was 66 years old.
A tribute issue of the
Socialist ReviewThe Socialist Review is the monthly magazine of the Socialist Workers Party . As well as being printed it is also published online.-Original publication: 1950-1962:...
, on whose editorial board he remained for 19 years, collected together many of his articles.
Private Eye issue 1116 included a tribute to Foot from the many people whom he worked with over the years.
On 10 October 2004 — three months after Foot's death — there was a full house at the Hackney Empire in
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
for an evening's celebration of Foot's life.
He is buried in
Highgate CemeteryHighgate Cemetery is a cemetery located in Highgate, London, England. It is designated Grade II* on the English Heritage Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England.-History and setting:...
, London, a few yards from
Karl MarxKarl Heinrich Marx was a Germanphilosopher, political economist, historian, political theorist, sociologist, communist and revolutionary, whose ideas are credited as the foundation of modern communism...
's tomb.
In 2005,
The GuardianThe Guardian is a British daily newspaper owned by the Guardian Media Group. Founded in 1821, it is unique among major British newspapers in being owned by a foundation .The Guardian Weekly, which circulates worldwide, provides a compact digest of four newspapers...
and
Private Eye jointly set up the
Paul Foot AwardThe Paul Foot Award is an award given for investigative or campaigning journalism, set up by The Guardian and Private Eye in memory of the journalist Paul Foot, who died in 2004....
, with an annual £10,000 prize fund, for investigative or campaigning journalism.
Quote
“Only the working masses can change society; but they will not do that spontaneously, on their own. They can rock capitalism back onto its heels but they will only knock it out if they have the organisation, the socialist party, which can show the way to a new, socialist order of society. Such a party does not just emerge. It can only be built out of the day-to-day struggles of working people.” –
Why you should be a socialist (1977).
See also
- Peter Cook
Peter Edward Cook was a British satirist, writer and comedian. He is widely regarded as the leading figure in the British satire boom of the 1960s...
- Ian Hislop
Ian David Hislop is a British satirist, writer, broadcaster and editor of the magazine Private Eye. He has appeared on many radio and television programmes, most notably as a team captain on the BBC current affairs quiz Have I Got News for You.-Early life:Hislop was born in Mumbles, Swansea in...
- Richard Ingrams
Richard Ingrams is a British journalist, a co-founder and second editor of the British satirical magazine Private Eye, and now editor of The Oldie magazine.-Career:...
- Alternative theories of the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103
Publications
- Immigration and Race in British Politics, (1965), Harmondsworth: Penguin Books.
- The Politics of Harold Wilson, (1968), Harmondsworth: Penguin Books.
- The Rise of Enoch Powell: An Examination of Enoch Powell’s Attitude to Immigration and Race, (1969), London: Cornmarket Press, ISBN 0-7191-9017-7.
- Who Killed Hanratty?, (1971), London: Cape, ISBN 0-224-00546-4.
- The Postal Workers and the Tory offensive, (1971?), London: International Socialists.
- Workers Against Racism, (1973?), England: International Socialists.
- Stop the Cuts, (1976), London: Rank and File Organising Committee.
- Why You Should Be a Socialist: The Case For the New Socialist Workers Party, (1977), London: Socialist Workers Party, ISBN 0-905998-01-4.
- Red Shelley, (1980), London: Sidgwick and Jackson, ISBN 0-283-98679-4.
- This Bright Day of Summer: The Peasants' Revolt of 1381, (1981), London:Socialists Unlimited, ISBN 0-905998-22-7.
- Three Letters to a Bennite, (1982), London: Socialist Workers Party, ISBN 0-905998-29-4.
- The Helen Smith Story, (1983), Glasgow: Fontana, ISBN 0-00-636536-1, (with Ron Smith).
- An Agitator of the Worst Type': A Portrait of Miners' Leader A.J. Cook, (1986), London: Socialist Workers Party, ISBN 0-905998-51-0.
- Murder at the Farm: Who Killed Carl Bridgewater? (1986), London: Sidgwick & Jackson, ISBN 0-283-99165-8.
- Ireland: Why Britain Must Get Out, (1989), London: Chatto & Windus, ISBN 0-7011-3548-4.
- Who Framed Colin Wallace?, (1989), London:Macmillan, ISBN 0-333-47008-7.
- The Case for Socialism: What the Socialist Workers Party Stands For, (1990), London: Bookmarks, ISBN 0-905998-74-X.
- Words as Weapons: Selected Writing 1980-1990, (1990), London: Verso, ISBN 0-86091-310-4/0860915271.
- Articles of Resistance, (2000), London: Bookmarks, ISBN 1-898876-64-9.
- The Vote: How It Was Won and How It Was Undermined, (2005), London: Viking, ISBN 0-670-91536-X.
Source
Further reading
- "One in the Eye, Memories of Paul Foot – the Gnome years" extract published in The Guardian
The Guardian is a British daily newspaper owned by the Guardian Media Group. Founded in 1821, it is unique among major British newspapers in being owned by a foundation .The Guardian Weekly, which circulates worldwide, provides a compact digest of four newspapers...
, Saturday 1 October 2005
External links
Obituaries
Audio