Paul Foot, campaigning journalist

Paul Mackintosh Foot (8 November 1937 in Palestine – 18 July 2004 at Stansted Airport) was a British investigative journalist, political campaigner, author, and long-time member of the Socialist Workers Party (SWP). He was the son of Hugh Foot (who was the last Governor of Cyprus and, as Lord Caradon was the UK Ambasssdor at the United Nations from 1964 to 1970). He was also the nephew of Michael Foot, former leader of the Labour Party. He was educated at Shrewsbury School and University College, Oxford. Download high resolution version (1400x703, 350 KB)Paul Foot addresses a miners rally in June 1984 File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Download high resolution version (1400x703, 350 KB)Paul Foot addresses a miners rally in June 1984 File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... is the 312th day of the year (313th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1937 (MCMXXXVII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ... is the 199th day of the year (200th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... shelby was here 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Terminal building, designed by Sir Norman Foster Stansted Airport is a medium-sized passenger airport with a single runway, located in the English county of Essex about thirty miles north of London. ... The Socialist Workers Party (SWP) is a political party of the far left in England It sees itself as standing in the revolutionary socialist tradition. ... The Right Honouarable Sir Hugh Mackintosh Foot, Baron Caradon PC, (October 8, 1907 - September 5, 1990), was a British diplomat who oversaw moves to independence in various colonies and was UK representative to the United Nations. ... The foundation of the U.N. The United Nations (UN) is an international organization whose stated aims are to facilitate co-operation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress and human rights issues. ... Michael Mackintosh Foot (born 23 July 1913) is an English politician and writer. ... The Labour Party has been, since its founding in the early 20th century, the principal political party of the left in England, Scotland and Wales. ... King Edward VI Grammar School, Shrewsbury, normally known as Shrewsbury School, is an independent school, located in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England. ... College name University College Collegium Magnae Aulae Universitatis Named after Established 1249 Sister College Trinity Hall Master Lord Butler of Brockwell JCR President Peter Surr Undergraduates 420 MCR President Monte MacDiarmid Graduates 144 Homepage Boatclub Crest of University College, Oxford University College (in full, the The Master and Fellows of...

Education at Shrewsbury Public School

Also at Shrewsbury was Richard Ingrams, Willie Rushton and several other friends who would later become involved in Private Eye. Richard Ingrams (born August 19, 1937) was the second editor of British satirical magazine, Private Eye, taking over from Christopher Booker in 1963. ... William George Rushton, commonly known as Willie Rushton (August 18, 1937–December 11, 1996) was a British cartoonist, satirist, comedian, actor and performer. ... Private eye may mean: Look up Private eye on Wiktionary, the free dictionary Private Eye a fortnightly British satirical magazine-newspaper, edited by Ian Hislop (as of 2005) A private investigator, a private detective for hire (see also crime fiction and detective fiction) Private Eye, a song by Alkaline Trio...

Anthony Chenevix-Trench was his Housemaster at Shrewsbury between 1950 and 1955, a time when corporal punishment in all schools was commonplace. In adult life, Foot exposed the ritual beatings that Chevenix-Trench had given. As Nick Cohen wrote in Foot's obituary in The Observer: Anthony Chenevix-Trench (May 10, 1919 - June 21, 1979) is best known as the Headmaster of Eton College from 1964-1970. ... Nick Cohen is a British journalist, author, and political commentator. ... Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ...

Exposing him in Private Eye was one of Foot's happiest days in journalism. He received hundreds of congratulatory letters from the child abuser's old pupils, many of whom were now prominent in British life.

After his national service in Jamaica, Foot was reunited with Ingrams at Oxford and wrote for Isis, one of the student publications at the University. National service is a common name for compulsory or voluntary military service programs. ... Isis is the longest-running independent student magazine in England, established in 1892 at the University of Oxford. ...

Early career

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. Fist Logo The Socialist Workers Party (SWP) is a revolutionary socialist political party in Britain. ... “Glaswegian” redirects here. ... Socialist Worker is the name of several socialist/communist newspapers. ...

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 and socialist causes, frequently trying to persuade audiences of the relevance of revolutionary socialism.^{[citation needed]} In politics, left-wing, political left, leftism, or simply the left, are terms which refer (with no particular precision) to the segment of the political spectrum typically associated with any of several strains of socialism, social democracy, or liberalism (especially in the American sense of the word), or with opposition... Socialism is a social and economic system (or the political philosophy advocating such a system) in which the economic means of production are owned and controlled collectively by the people. ...

Newspapers and magazines

In the mid-1960s, Foot was employed part-time by the Sunday Telegraph. He had previously contributed articles to Private Eye 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. This article deals with The Daily Telegraph in Britain, see The Daily Telegraph (Australia) for the Australian publication The Daily Telegraph is a British broadsheet newspaper founded in 1855. ... Private eye may mean: Look up Private eye on Wiktionary, the free dictionary Private Eye a fortnightly British satirical magazine-newspaper, edited by Ian Hislop (as of 2005) A private investigator, a private detective for hire (see also crime fiction and detective fiction) Private Eye, a song by Alkaline Trio... Private eye may mean: Look up Private eye on Wiktionary, the free dictionary Private Eye a fortnightly British satirical magazine-newspaper, edited by Ian Hislop (as of 2005) A private investigator, a private detective for hire (see also crime fiction and detective fiction) Private Eye, a song by Alkaline Trio... Richard Ingrams (born August 19, 1937) was the second editor of British satirical magazine, Private Eye, taking over from Christopher Booker in 1963. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ...

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 fourteen 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 (in response to which, Foot distributed copies of the articles to passers-by outside the Mirror's headquarters). 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. Alternate newspaper: The Daily Mirror (Australia) The Daily Mirror is a popular British tabloid daily newspaper. ... Robert Maxwell Ian Robert Maxwell MC (June 10, 1923 – November 5, 1991) was a Czechoslovakian-born British media proprietor and formerly Member of Parliament (MP), who rose from poverty to build an extensive publishing empire. ... Ian Hislop (born 13 July 1960) is the editor of British satirical magazine Private Eye, a team captain on the popular satirical current affairs quiz Have I Got News for You and a comedy scriptwriter. ... The Guardian is a British newspaper owned by the Guardian Media Group. ...

Politics

He fought the Birmingham Stechford 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. A loser, he failed in the London region for the RESPECT coalition at the 2004 European elections. The Birmingham Stechford by-election, in Birmingham, on March 31, 1977 was held after Labour Member of Parliament (MP) Roy Jenkins resigned his seat following his appointment as President of the European Commission. ... The Socialist Alliance was a left-wing electoral alliance in England in existence between 1992 and 2005. ... The London Borough of Hackney is a London Borough in the east end of London and part of inner London. ... The Liberal Democrats, often shortened to Lib Dems, are a liberal political party based in the United Kingdom. ... This article is about the capital of England and the United Kingdom. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... The European Parliament election, 2004 was the UK part of the European Parliament election, 2004. ...

Awards and campaign journalism

Paul Foot 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, hr 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. What The Papers Say, is one of the longest running programmes on British television. ... [[2005 News of the World 2004 The Independent 2003 Daily Mail 2002 The Mirror 2001 Daily Mail 2000 The Sunday Telegraph 1999 The Guardian 1998 Daily Mail 1997 The Daily Telegraph 1996 Daily Mail 1995 Daily Mail 1994 The Daily Telegraph]] ... The Orwell Prize is an annual award given to writing which makes politics and political thought accessible. ... James Cameron (1911-1985) was a prominent British journalist, in whose memory the annual James Cameron Memorial Lecture is given. ...

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. Foot exposed the framing of former British intelligence officer, Colin Wallace, in Northern Ireland during the 1970s, and the collusion between British forces and unionist paramilitaries. ^[2] 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] An architect at his drawing board, 1893 An architect is a person who is involved in the planning, designing and oversight of a buildings construction. ... John Garlick Llewellyn Poulson (April 14, 1910 - January 31, 1993) was a British architect who caused a major political scandal when his use of bribery and connections to senior politicians were disclosed in 1972. ... The Birmingham Six were six men—Hugh Callaghan, Patrick Hill, Gerard Hunter, Richard McIlkenny, William Power and John Walker—sentenced to life imprisonment in 1975 in an infamous miscarriage of justice for two pub bombings in Birmingham, England on November 21, 1974 that killed 21 people. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... Colin Wallace is a former British soldier and psychological warrior who was one of the members of the Clockwork Orange project, which is alleged to have been an attempt to smear a number of British politicians in the early 1970s. ... Northern Ireland is a part of the United Kingdom lying in the northeast of the island of Ireland, covering 5,459 square miles (14,139 km², about a sixth of the islands total area). ... Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi (Arabic: عبد الباسط محمد علي المقرحي) (born April 1, 1952) is a former Libyan intelligence officer, head of security for Libyan Arab Airlines, and director of the Center for Strategic Studies in Tripoli. ... The cockpit landed in a farmers field near a tiny church in Tundergarth, Scotland Pan Am Flight 103 was Pan Ams daily Frankfurt-London-New York-Detroit evening flight. ... Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi (born April 1, 1952) is a former Libyan intelligence officer, head of security for Libyan Arab Airlines, and director of the Center for Strategic Studies in Tripoli. ... A miscarriage of justice is primarily the conviction and punishment of a person for a crime that he or she did not commit. ...

He also worked tirelessly, though without success, to gain a posthumous pardon for James Hanratty, who was hanged in 1962 for the A6 murder. This article does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... James Hanratty (October 4, 1936 birth registered in Bromley – April 4, 1962) was the eighth last person in Britain to be hanged for murder after being convicted of carrying out the notorious 1961 A6 murder. The guilt of the later convicts was never in doubt, but Hanrattys guilt has... Hanging to Music. ... The A6 murder is a crime which many believe led to a major United Kingdom. ...

Death and Memorials

Foot, a resident of Stoke Newington,^[3] died of a heart attack while waiting at Stansted Airport to begin a family holiday in Ireland. The Castle Climbing Centre, once the main Water Board pumping station. ... Acute myocardial infarction (AMI or MI), more commonly known as a heart attack, is a disease state that occurs when the blood supply to a part of the heart is interrupted. ... Terminal building, designed by Sir Norman Foster Stansted Airport is a medium-sized passenger airport with a single runway, located in the English county of Essex about thirty miles north of London. ...

A special tribute issue of the Socialist Review, on whose editorial board he remained 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. The Socialist Review is the monthly magazine of the Socialist Workers Party (UK). ...

On 10 October 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. October 10 is the 283rd day of the year (284th in leap years). ... shelby was here 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... This article is about the capital of England and the United Kingdom. ...

The Paul Foot Award

In 2005, The Guardian and Private Eye jointly set up the Paul Foot Award, with an annual £10,000 prize fund, for investigative/campaigning journalism.^[4] The Guardian is a British newspaper owned by the Guardian Media Group. ... Private eye may mean: Look up Private eye on Wiktionary, the free dictionary Private Eye a fortnightly British satirical magazine-newspaper, edited by Ian Hislop (as of 2005) A private investigator, a private detective for hire (see also crime fiction and detective fiction) Private Eye, a song by Alkaline Trio...

John Sweeney of the Daily Mail won the first prize of £5,000 in 2005, and David Harrison picked up the 2006 award for his investigation into sex trafficking in Eastern Europe published in The Sunday Telegraph. John Sweeney is an award-winning journalist and author, currently working as an investigative journalist for the BBCs Panorama series. ... The Daily Mail is a British newspaper and the oldest tabloid, first published in 1896. ... This article deals with The Daily Telegraph in Britain, see The Daily Telegraph (Australia) for the Australian publication The Daily Telegraph is a British broadsheet newspaper founded in 1855. ...

The closing date for the Paul Foot Award 2007 is 3 September 2007.^[5] is the 246th day of the year (247th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is now the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era. ...

Quote

“Only the working masses can change society; but they will not do that spontaneously, on their own. They can rock capitalism back onto its heels but they will only knock it out if they have the organisation, the socialist party, which can show the way to a new, socialist order of society. Such a party does not just emerge. It can only be built out of the day-to-day struggles of working people.” –Why you should be a socialist (1977).

References

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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 0-7191-9017-7.
• Who Killed Hanratty?, (1971), London: Cape, ISBN 0-224-00546-4.
• The Postal Workers and the Tory offensive, (1971?), London: International Socialists.
• Workers Against Aacism, (1973?), England: International Socialists.
• Stop the Cuts, (1976), London: Rank and File Organising Committee.
• Why You Should Be a Socialist: The Case For the New Socialist Workers Party, (1977), London: Socialist Workers Party, ISBN 0-905998-01-4.
• Red Shelley, (1980), London: Sidgwick and Jackson, ISBN 0-283-98679-4.
• This Bright Day of Summer: The Peasants' Revolt of 1381, (1981), London:Socialists Unlimited, ISBN 0-905998-22-7.
• Three Letters to a Bennite, (1982), London: Socialist Workers Party, ISBN 0-905998-29-4.
• The Helen Smith Story, (1983), Glasgow: Fontana, ISBN 0-00-636536-1, (with Ron Smith).
• 'An Agitator of the Worst Type': A Portrait of Miners' Leader A.J. Cook, (1986), London: Socialist Workers Party, ISBN 0-905998-51-0.
• Murder at the Farm: Who Killed Carl Bridgewater? (1986), London: Sidgwick & Jackson, ISBN 0-283-99165-8.
• Ireland: Why Britain Must Get Out, (1989), London: Chatto & Windus, ISBN 0-7011-3548-4.
• Who Framed Colin Wallace?, (1989), London:Macmillan, ISBN 0-333-47008-7.
• The Case for Socialism: What the Socialist Workers Party Stands For, (1990), London: Bookmarks, ISBN 0-905998-74-X.
• Words as Weapons: Selected Writing 1980-1990, (1990), London: Verso, ISBN 0-86091-310-4/0860915271.
• Articles of Resistance, (2000), London: Bookmarks, ISBN 1-898876-64-9.
• The Vote: How It Was Won and How It Was Undermined, (2005), London: Viking, ISBN 0-670-91536-X.

Source

• The British Library Catalogue

Further reading

• Ingrams, Richard (2005). My Friend Footy. Private Eye Productions. ISBN 1-901784-42-8. 
• "One in the Eye, Memories of Paul Foot - the Gnome years" extract published in The Guardian, Saturday 1 October 2005

Richard Ingrams (born August 19, 1937) was the second editor of British satirical magazine, Private Eye, taking over from Christopher Booker in 1963. ... Private eye may mean: Look up Private eye on Wiktionary, the free dictionary Private Eye a fortnightly British satirical magazine-newspaper, edited by Ian Hislop (as of 2005) A private investigator, a private detective for hire (see also crime fiction and detective fiction) Private Eye, a song by Alkaline Trio... The Guardian is a British newspaper owned by the Guardian Media Group. ... is the 274th day of the year (275th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...

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

• MP3 Talks on Shelley and the Peasants Revolt by Foot
• Paul Foot on Ramsay MacDonald, Part 1, Part 2
• Paul Foot Award

James Ramsay MacDonald (12 October 1866 – 9 November 1937) was a British politician and three times Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. ...

See also

• Peter Cook
• Ian Hislop
• Richard Ingrams
• Alternative theories of the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103