Only the good die young.

[narnee]

Robin Cook, the Scottish MP and former Cabinet minister, died shortly after collapsing suddenly last night whilst hillwalking with his wife in the Highlands

Comments

[softfruit]

I'd pick out not the Iraq stuff, of which I have grand 'what-if' theories, but his role in the Cook-MacLennan agreement. Sure, in the end he couldn't hold a landslide Labour majority to delivering all the terms thereof, but it brought about more positive constitutional change than there had been since the 20s.

Sadly the media would never have allowed Cook to have been PM; by the standards of the modern age he had a face for radio and a voice for print. [As indeed do I]

[narnee]

I'm not familiar with the Cook-MacLennan agreement. I'm guessing it occured before my arrival in this country and it must have slipped under my radar in the time since. What was it?

I respectfully disagree that the media would have never allowed him to be PM. All he needed was to go grey (or be helped along with dye), some well-placed invisible makeup and a few snazzier suits; it's all about the PR.

[softfruit]

Cook-Maclennan was a shared programme carved out between the Lib Dems and Labour (Robert Maclennan being a Lib Dem MP and onetime leader of the SDP) which was devised in 1996/97 through a series of meetings looking at what areas of constitutional reform the two parties might be able to agree on in the event of the Tories losing a general election. Remember, this was at a time when the last time the Tories had lost was in 1974, and even then the Labour majority had been just four seats. A shared programme meant greater democratic legitimacy for changes and less desparate horse-trading in the event of a hung parliament

[greylock]

I saw that on the news tonight.

I know more about him from Dead Ringers than anything.
And the Iraq stuff.

[redcountess]

Once again, you have put into words much better than I did how I feel, thanks.