Like many others, I'm sad to see that former Liberal MP Cyril Smith passed away today at the age of 82.
He certainly didn't fit the beard and sandalled hippy liberal stereotype with his views in favour of the death penalty. He wasn't afraid to be himself and stand up for what he believed in. We don't have enough real characters like him in politics these days.
I only met him properly once, at the Littleborough and Saddleworth by-election HQ in 1995. He turned up out of the blue one Saturday afternoon and went round every single person who was in there stuffing envelopes or folding leaflets or picking up more leaflets to deliver and spoke to them and thanked them, joking away with us all.
It was a good and thoughtful thing for him to do during a long, stressful and sometimes fraught (because of the actions of the Labour Party more than anything else) campaign.
RIP big man!
1 comment:
Characters like Cyril Smith and the late David Penhaligon are sadly missed by supporters of the erstwhile Liberal party for their innate common sense and political probity - intangible qualities, maybe, because they so rarely surface in today's politics.
R.I.P., Cyril.
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