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Welsh politician Lord Kinnock was leader of the opposition from 1983 to 1992 and vice president of the European Commission from 1999 to 2004. His work to modernise Labour after its election wipeout against Margaret Thatcher still impacts the party to this day, but in the turbulent Starmer years, has his wisdom been betrayed? Neil Kinnock joins UnHerd’s Freddie Sayers for a live interview and audience Q&A on his long life in politics.
What a disappointment. I tuned in to this because I assumed (WANTED) Kinnock to be the wise old head with an intellectual and insightful analysis of where Labour is right now, and what it should do. Wrong. He is curmudgeonly, out of touch, superficial, still fighting the old battles he had lost so emphatically, and blaming everyone except himself. And he has no sense of himself as a discussant: long-winded, braggart warrior, who interrupts, doesn’t listen, and brings to the discussion nothing but abuse of others.
Had I been there I would have asked a question about party politics and the dissenfranchisement of the electorate – ‘is it not a question that shared deliberation, in the prescence of doubt, has always been unaffordable in party politics’?
Hugely enjoyable and inspirational, the wonderful Neil Kinnock, makes one feel there could be hope for democracy. But one felt for poor Freddie trying to get a word in edgeways !
I can never forget that the whole Kinnock family were riding the EU gravy train.