robin cook quits

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public statement at 7 o clock wherein he may
'take apart the legal basis for a pre-emptive
attack on iraq with forensic skill' according
to the guardian.

― piscesboy, Monday, 17 March 2003 16:54 (twenty-three years ago)

Wow.

― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Monday, 17 March 2003 16:57 (twenty-three years ago)

he will however speak so fast and gobble so many of his words that the world may be none the wiser

― mark s (mark s), Monday, 17 March 2003 16:59 (twenty-three years ago)

Unlike your crystal-marked plain English discourse, Mark? :)

― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Monday, 17 March 2003 17:02 (twenty-three years ago)

so who is gonna challenge Tony for the leadership? And when's it gonna happen?

― jel -- (jel), Monday, 17 March 2003 17:02 (twenty-three years ago)

I am glad that at least one of them has principles, no sign of Short going after that hoohar last week.

― Ed (dali), Monday, 17 March 2003 17:03 (twenty-three years ago)

rbn ck invntd txtspk!

― mark s (mark s), Monday, 17 March 2003 17:03 (twenty-three years ago)

political card played, i reckon Robin Cook to challenge Blair. international progressive socialist vs sellout right wing (conservative) new labour.

― DJ Martian (djmartian), Monday, 17 March 2003 17:04 (twenty-three years ago)

first biggie to make a political statement and challenge Blair.

― DJ Martian (djmartian), Monday, 17 March 2003 17:05 (twenty-three years ago)

short might go this week once war begins for good.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Monday, 17 March 2003 17:05 (twenty-three years ago)

Robin cook presented me with a cycle helmet for raising money for Shelter on a sponsored cycle ride with my dad. He was shadow Minister for Housing at the time.

― Ed (dali), Monday, 17 March 2003 17:05 (twenty-three years ago)

Speculation has it that the forthcoming so-called roadmap to a Palestinian state is helping to restrain Short at the moment... I don't see how she can't leave now, though. I doubt we'll be seeing many leadership challenges just yet, although if the fighting doesn't go "well"...

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Monday, 17 March 2003 17:08 (twenty-three years ago)

The legal argument is taken apart in non-Cook speak here.

― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Monday, 17 March 2003 17:09 (twenty-three years ago)

If she doesn't leave they she might as well kiss goodbye to her political career she's only in the cabinet as a token 'left'winger in non-threatening role. She'd be so easy to shuffle out of the cabinet without her constituency in the left.

― Ed (dali), Monday, 17 March 2003 17:13 (twenty-three years ago)

he's described in the online guardian as
'a bearded squirrel' and 'a longtime 2-timer'.
and this is in a generally positive piece !

― piscesboy, Monday, 17 March 2003 17:13 (twenty-three years ago)

gnome

― Ed (dali), Monday, 17 March 2003 17:14 (twenty-three years ago)

"Badly shaven squirrel" < /factcheck >

― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Monday, 17 March 2003 17:14 (twenty-three years ago)

Anthony Worrell-Thompson.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Monday, 17 March 2003 17:15 (twenty-three years ago)

Yes, yes, but even so: Cook will be a smarter, more effective spokesperson for the antiwar movement than Little Chuckie Kennedy.

― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Monday, 17 March 2003 17:18 (twenty-three years ago)

oops, sorry jerry !

― piscesboy, Monday, 17 March 2003 17:18 (twenty-three years ago)

two years pass...

Robin Cook 'taken seriously ill'

The former Cabinet minister Robin Cook is seriously ill in hospital after a an accident while he was out hill walking, reports say.

It is believed that he was taken ill near the summit of Ben Stack mountain, near an area known as Laxford Bridge in north-western Scotland.

He was flown by helicopter to hospital in Inverness, and is understood to have received resuscitation en route.

Looks like the black helicopters got him.

― James Mitchell (James Mitchell), Saturday, 6 August 2005 16:11 (twenty years ago)

The stalling by Peter Sissons on News 24 is particularly revealing...

John Prescott to give a statement "in an hour".

― James Mitchell (James Mitchell), Saturday, 6 August 2005 16:20 (twenty years ago)

shit.

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Saturday, 6 August 2005 16:50 (twenty years ago)

fuck. he's dead.

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Saturday, 6 August 2005 16:56 (twenty years ago)

yeah http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4127654.stm

damn.

― Last Of The Famous International Pfunkboys (Kerr), Saturday, 6 August 2005 17:04 (twenty years ago)

It's really horrible, this news. Cook was one of the few really principled politicians, a really good man from my home town.

― Momus (Momus), Saturday, 6 August 2005 17:15 (twenty years ago)

oh, no.

― spontine (cis), Saturday, 6 August 2005 17:22 (twenty years ago)

whoa.

― jaymc (jaymc), Saturday, 6 August 2005 17:28 (twenty years ago)

I really liked Robin Cook, and am sorry he's gone.

― Pangolino 2, Saturday, 6 August 2005 17:32 (twenty years ago)

Jeeps. :-/ Sucks and a half.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 6 August 2005 17:55 (twenty years ago)

Fetch me my tinfoil hat

― Stuh-du-du-du-du-du-du-denka (jingleberries), Saturday, 6 August 2005 18:02 (twenty years ago)

this is very sad. I hope people remember him for this:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/ethical/article/0,2763,192031,00.html

― Cathy (Cathy), Saturday, 6 August 2005 18:25 (twenty years ago)

However twisted and hypocritical it became, Robin Cook came into the foreign office clearly intending and dreaming of an ethical foreign policy, that gave equal respect to human rights at home and abroad.

― Cathy (Cathy), Saturday, 6 August 2005 18:31 (twenty years ago)

WTF

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Saturday, 6 August 2005 19:33 (twenty years ago)

I hope conspiracy doesn't overshadow the good Robin Cook stood for.

― Anti-Pope Consortium (noodle vague), Saturday, 6 August 2005 20:23 (twenty years ago)

A man famous for an "Ethical Foreign Policy" who presided over the selling of British arms to Indonesia which were used in the genocide of East Timor. And defended doing so. Very ethical indeed.

― Lovelace (Lovelace), Saturday, 6 August 2005 21:06 (twenty years ago)

One voice is deafening by its absence amongst the tributes pouring in.

― Momus (Momus), Saturday, 6 August 2005 21:21 (twenty years ago)

He'll be in bed by now. He's got Church in the morning.

― Anti-Pope Consortium (noodle vague), Saturday, 6 August 2005 21:23 (twenty years ago)

No, he has spoken.

― Momus (Momus), Saturday, 6 August 2005 21:24 (twenty years ago)

(...albeit with horrible grammatical errors: "As Foreign Secretary, then the Leader of the House, we were close colleagues.")

― Momus (Momus), Saturday, 6 August 2005 21:26 (twenty years ago)

The former Foreign Secretary was walking with second wife Gaynor in the Scottish Highlands when he collapsed, and was later declared dead at hospital in Inverness.

"walking"

― Anti-Pope Consortium (noodle vague), Saturday, 6 August 2005 21:26 (twenty years ago)

I happy go out "walking"

― Anti-Pope Consortium (noodle vague), Saturday, 6 August 2005 21:27 (twenty years ago)

bollocks, a good man.

― Ed (dali), Saturday, 6 August 2005 21:28 (twenty years ago)

A man famous for an "Ethical Foreign Policy" who presided over the selling of British arms to Indonesia which were used in the genocide of East Timor. And defended doing so. Very ethical indeed.

What I praised was Cook's idealism and willingness to attempt bringing and ethical dimension to foreign policy. The word ethical wasn't even in the vocabulary of most previous foreign secretaries. Of course, it would actually be impossible to have a genuinely ethical foreign policy without completely disbanding the UK arms industry, one of our last big manufacturing exports (which I'd be all for, even with the job losses and economic chaos that could create). Cook claimed that those licences to sell a few jets to Indonesia were already signed before he took up office, and he had no power to cancel them retrospectively. I don't think that's true. What may well be true is that whatever he might have liked, no one above him would've actually let him refuse to sell weapons to anyone who might use them to do something nasty, which is of course everyone.

The worst thing about New Labour's 'ethical foreign policy' was not that sometimes arms deals were made regardless, but that the language of 'promoting human rights and democracy' became used to justify full scale military intervention. Finally, with Iraq, Cook stood up against this.

― Cathy (Cathy), Saturday, 6 August 2005 21:44 (twenty years ago)

This is just crazy. I looked forward to his spirited, bracingly reasonable moral opposition to Blair with delicious anticipation.

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Saturday, 6 August 2005 22:27 (twenty years ago)

I am still thinking about Robin Cook.

― Cathy (Cathy), Sunday, 7 August 2005 02:43 (twenty years ago)

he quit living

― !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!, Sunday, 7 August 2005 02:44 (twenty years ago)

I looked forward to his spirited, bracingly reasonable moral opposition to Blair with delicious anticipation

i always rather hoped that - despite his previous opposition to devolution as a concept - he'd come back to scotland as first minister. i wasn't the only one.

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Sunday, 7 August 2005 08:00 (twenty years ago)

I saw him do a Q&A session at LSE a few years back (The war had just started, I think) and he came across really well - principled, decent, affable and surprisingly funny. RIP.

― chap who would dare to thwart the revolution (chap), Sunday, 7 August 2005 15:37 (twenty years ago)

sorry you died robin. i wish you hadn't.

― jeffrey (johnson), Sunday, 7 August 2005 18:42 (twenty years ago)

That's John Smith, Donald Dewar and Robin Cook all gone now. Beer and sandwiches not the healthiest way of life, then.

― stet (stet), Sunday, 7 August 2005 20:09 (twenty years ago)

whmph [chew, eat] you talkng 'bout? [slurp, guzzle]

― john prescott (grimlord), Sunday, 7 August 2005 20:25 (twenty years ago)

Prescott can't visit Scotland because his life expectancy would fall so quickly he'd drop dead at the border. Chip-scoffing mook.

― stet (stet), Sunday, 7 August 2005 20:48 (twenty years ago)

You seem strangely neutral about him.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 7 August 2005 21:01 (twenty years ago)

No artery is safe up here, Ned. I'm sure just by passing some chip shops here you've lost three years from your life. Glasgwegians live 10 years less than ... ooh, just about everyone else in teh world.

― stet (stet), Sunday, 7 August 2005 21:06 (twenty years ago)

Damn you you murderer. You help welcome me to Glasgow precisely so you can off me! I weep out of frustration and sorrow.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 7 August 2005 21:10 (twenty years ago)

Weep tears of fat!

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Sunday, 7 August 2005 21:20 (twenty years ago)

EVERYDAY I DIE

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 7 August 2005 21:34 (twenty years ago)

Tracer Hand's post is just spot-on.

So is Catherine.

It is a terrible loss to Britain, so needless, inexplicable, damaging.

Is this the only Cook obituary thread? Perhaps I have missed another one. I think he deserves more.

Tributes have been generous, but some of them also foolishly, nastily tinged. Much nonsense talked about a 'chaotic private life'. So his marriage was breaking down, he fell in love with his secretary - and they remained married for c.8 years, the rest of his life. (His first wife, I'm afraid, made herself seem a bitter clown down the years, with her sour barbs about him.) Meanwhile, an idiot from the Times on Newsnight last night saying that RC seemed 'ridiculous' to 'the average voter'. He was not more ridiculous than the man who sent UK troops into illegal, insane war, and left his people to reap the whirlwind.

I think that Robin Cook was perhaps the finest MP left in the Commons when he died. Only Gordon Brown, whatever his particular ups and downs, seems to have equal stature in my mind.

― the pinefox, Tuesday, 9 August 2005 15:02 (twenty years ago)

Beer and sandwiches not the healthiest way of life, then.

It turns out he died of heart disease.

So, no.

― Forest Pines (ForestPines), Tuesday, 9 August 2005 17:10 (twenty years ago)

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