John Mackintosh
Over the period since the 1964 general election there has been a substantial intake of scholars and academics by all the parties ,represented in Parliament. It can safely be said, however, that none was a better scholar than John Mackintosh; and that none, even approached his parliamentary alw oratorical skills. To hear him expound even the driest of propositions, to hear him dilate even upon a view one thought wrong, nr silly, was to feel a fresh breeze of passion and understanding move swiftly across the often dull face of politics. To be sure, he was arrogant; and his arrogance did not serve him well with his party, which rarely suffers brilliance gladlY• It is amazing to say it, but it is true nonethe' less, that during his decade (allowing for the brief interruption of 1974) in the House of Commons there never seemed much chance that he would be preferred. safer, less competent, much less striking men were alwaYs chosen, even for the most humdrum Of offices. Whenever a post was going the single thing one could be sure of was that Mackintosh would not get it. And about that he was, of course, bitter. The bitterness, as much as his unfailing lc/Ye of the academic study of politics, led hill", eventually, to add the chair of politics at Edinburgh to the many other charges on Ins time; and to impose that extra burden on his already uncertain health, He could have had many other easier and more affluent careers: but he chose the most taxing OMbination available to him. And in quieter moments in the future, when less narrow and less intolerant men, and women run the Labour Party, they Will surely understand that the most extr, ordinary and the most impressive thing about John Mackintosh was that heals' as kept the faith that brought him to his PartY in the first place. The Tories would have welcomed him with open arms. More thane one television company offered a lucratiht,v.e contract. Various universities offered a . of ease and dignity. But John Mackintosn, for all that his gifts were continually 5131° ed, remained loyal to Labour to the last.
Patrick Cosgrave
Previous page
