I was saddened last week to hear about the death of that great Scottish Trade Unionist, author , journalsist and campaigner Jimmy Reid – ‘the best MP Scotland never had’ is one of the epiphets ascribed to him, because he was too honest. You can get his full funeral coverage by going to Google and putting in ‘Jimmy Reid funeral STV’ where you can hear the great stories and moving tributes about his life from among many including Billy Connelly and Sir Alex Ferguson.
I liked him because he had a vision and passion in his voice, a self educated working class man who started reading about philosophy when he was 14, Alex Ferguson couldn’t understand when they grew up together how Jimmy didn’t want to play football but spend his spare time in the library. He said he allways had a spring in his step as if he knew where he was going and he was going to do something important. Obviously like other radical trade Union leaders he was vilified in the press at times but he always managed to conduct himself with dignity, I remember when he was debating on the Parkinson Show with Kenneth Williams how articulate and cogent he was, apparently in the green room before the show Kenneth Williams recited and old english poem to Jimmy and was surprised when Jimmy knew who had written it, Jimmy then recited a poem to Williams and asked him who wrote that one, Williams said ashamedly that he didn’t know, Jimmy replied ‘I wrote it!!’
Whether you agreed with his philosophy and politics or not you cannot help admiring a man who stood up for his principles and those of his fellow man , alot different to the career sanatised polticians of today who are carachterless.
Look on the internet for some of his speeches especialy the one about the ‘rat race’, also look in you tube and put in Jimmy Reid to get tributes to him and if you don’t remember him hear him speak ,a great orator.
Finaly my favourite story was when John Lennon heard about how the shipbuilders had taken over the shipyard to have a ‘work in’ he sent a cheque for £5000, Jimmy opened the letter and because it was raining couldn’t quite see who the letter and money was from, he said we have recieved a large ammount of money from someone er it looks like Lenin, someone in the crowd said ‘that can’ e’ be, he died after the Russian Revolution !!’
I love the humour and spirit, as Billy Connelly said ‘I loved Jimmy and Jimmy loved me, he told me so’ can you imagine Gordon Brown and Tony Blair saying that to each other ,which prompted me to title this Blog ‘we’ll never see these carachters again’,
Lawrence's Blog 