Paul Foot
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See also Paul Foot (comedian) Image:PaulFoot.jpg The Honourable Paul Mackintosh Foot (November 8, 1937 – July 18, 2004) was a British investigative journalist, political campaigner, author, and long-time member of the Socialist Workers Party (SWP). Paul Foot was the son of Hugh Foot who, as Lord Caradon, was governor of Cyprus and represented the United Kingdom at the United Nations from 1964 to 1970. He was also the nephew of Michael Foot, former leader of the Labour Party.
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Our left foot
Foot originally joined the International Socialists, organisational forerunner of the SWP, when he was a cub reporter in Glasgow in the early 1960s. He wrote for Socialist Worker 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 causes, but most frequently to try to persuade audiences of the relevance of revolutionary socialism.
Newspapers and magazines
In the mid-1960s, Foot was employed part-time by the Sunday Telegraph. He had previously contributed articles to Private Eye magazine 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 Ingrams and its new, sole owner Peter Cook. 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. 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 Molloy, 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 14 enjoyable years, but finally fell out with the new editor, David Banks, after the death of Robert Maxwell, 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. He then rejoined Private Eye for a third time, with its new editor, Ian Hislop. From 1993, he also contributed a regular column to The Guardian.
Politics
He fought the Birmingham Ladywood by-election in 1977 for the SWP and was a Socialist Alliance candidate for several offices from 2001 onwards. In the Hackney mayoral election in 2002 he came third, beating the Liberal Democrat candidate into fourth. He stood in the London region for the RESPECT coalition at the 2004 European elections.
Awards and campaign journalism
He was Journalist of the Year in the What The Papers Say Awards in 1972 and 1989, Campaigning Journalist of the Year in the 1980 British Press Awards, won the George Orwell Prize for Journalism in 1994 with Tim Laxton, won the Journalist of the Decade in the What The Papers Say Awards in 2000, and the James Cameron Special Posthumous Award in 2004.
His best known work was in the form of campaign journalism, including his exposure of corrupt architect John Poulson and, most notably, his prominent role in the campaigns to overturn the convictions of the Birmingham Six and the Bridgewater Four, which succeeded in 1991 and 1997 respectively. He took a particular interest in the conviction of Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi for the Lockerbie bombing, firmly believing Megrahi to have been a victim of a miscarriage of justice.[1]
He also worked tirelessly, though without success, to gain a post-humous pardon for James Hanratty, who was hanged in 1962 for the A6 murder.
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 0719190177.
- Who killed Hanratty?, (1971), London: Cape, ISBN 0224005464.
- 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 a new Socialist Party, (1977), London: Socialist Workers Party, ISBN 0905998014.
- Red Shelley, (1980), London: Sidgwick and Jackson, ISBN 0283986794.
- This bright day of summer: the Peasants' Revolt of 1381, (1981), London:Socialists Unlimited, ISBN 0905998227.
- Three letters to a Bennite, (1982), London: Socialist Workers Party, ISBN 0905998294.
- The Helen Smith story, (1983), Glasgow: Fontana, ISBN 0006365361, (with Ron Smith).
- An agitator of the worst kind: a portrait of miners' leader A.J. Cook, (1986), London: Socialist Workers Party, ISBN 0905998510.
- Murder at the farm: who killed Carl Bridgewater? (1986), London: Sidgwick & Jackson, ISBN 0283991658.
- Ireland: why Britain must get out, (1989), London: Chatto & Windus, ISBN 0701135484.
- Who framed Colin Wallace?, (1989), London:Macmillan, ISBN 0333470087.
- The case for socialism: what the Socialist Workers Party stands for, (1990), London: Bookmarks, ISBN 090599874X.
- Words as weapons: selected writing 1980-1990, (1990), London: Verso, ISBN 0860913104/0860915271.
- Articles of resistance, (2000), London: Bookmarks, ISBN 1898876649.
- The vote: how it was won and how it was undermined, (2005), London: Viking, ISBN 067091536X.
Source
Memorial
He died of a heart attack while waiting at Stansted Airport to begin a family holiday in Ireland. A special tribute issue of the Socialist Review magazine, of which he was on the editorial board 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 October 10, 2004 — three months after Foot's death — there was a full house at the Hackney Empire in London for an evening's celebration of the life of this much-admired and respected campaigning journalist. The Guardian and Private Eye have set up the Paul Foot Award, with an annual £10,000 prize, for investigative/campaigning journalism.
External links
- Paul Foot Internet Archive at Marxists.org
Obituaries
- Socialist Worker obituary
- Guardian obituary
- Independent obituary
- BBC obituary
- Socialist Review obituary
- Extracts from his final work The Vote, Introduction and Sisters at War
Audio
Further reading
- My Friend Footy Richard Ingrams, Private Eye Books, 2005 (edited extract entitled: One in the Eye, Memories of Paul Foot - the Gnome yearswas published in the The Guardian, Saturday October 1, 2005)