RIP John Prescott - Ex Deputy PM

[80sChav]

John has passed away today or last night 86 years old. Without being political I think it is fair to say whatever way we vote "that John was of a kind" and always game for a laugh, even being controversial like that time he punched that guy when he was out campaigning in Rhyl in 2001 after the Guy "Egged him"

To be honest I quite admired John Prescott, I have read his book and he only got into Politics because he was a steward on the Liners .... then he became a Union Rep. If you can get on in life to try to help people that way then "why not"!!

As well who can not also forget his famous "2 two Jags" controversy!

RIP John Prescott

[darren]

R i p john.


I never realised he had been in a care home due to alzheimers..

[George 1978]

As Deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott had always been the prominent shadow of Tony Blair and his Premiership throughout his ten years as his Deputy, and despite being Blair's Number Two, one would not imagine him being Prime Minister himself. Indeed, only Clement Atlee has been both Prime Minister and Deputy just before entering Number Ten. The death of former Labour leader John Smith in May 1994 was one reason why Prescott became Deputy leader in the first place, otherwise Margaret Beckett would have continued to be in that position into 1997 and beyond - he and Smith were both born in 1938. The incident with the protestor in the run up to the 2001 General Election will be the main legacy that people will associate Prescott with, and his nickname "Two Jags" being promoted to "Two Jabs" after that punch - even Frank Bruno had paid tribute to him! Probably the biggest controversy between a British politician and an egg since Edwina Currie and the salmonella scandal of the late 1980s.

Impersonators and satirists such as Rory Bremner have always portrayed Prescott as the Les Dawson (or even a stereotypical National Express coach driver) of politics - a northern, deadpan sort of figure in British culture who in this case, translated to mainstream politics quite well. He did feel very much like a Yorkshireman rather than a Welshman as to he originally grew up in. Prescott was also referred to as being "Mr Hull", although one cannot imagine him with a papier-mache emu puppet on his arm, even if he did attack an egg-thrower with the bird! Prescott and Rod Hull were both pictured in an Odd One Out round on Have I Got News For You, and it was and it was Rod and not Prescott himself who was the odd one out!

British politicians in the 1970s, 1980s and even 1990s were of more character then than the intake of recent years - Prescott was very much "Old Labour" and was more suited timewise to the Tony Benn; Denis Healey and Neil Kinnock eras of the party, even before Blair was first elected as an MP in 1983, and so it is interesting how he was translated into New Labour territory from 1994 onwards after he was voted as Blair's Deputy. Some thought of him as a Blair stooge while others saw as him upholding himself as a senior politician.

[George 1978]

Looking at John Prescott's General Election results in Hull East while he was MP, he defeated quite a few rival candidates over the years who had become household names nationally after standing in other constituencies. Prescott's first Conservative rival was Norman Lamont in 1970, two years before he became an MP himself. He also defeated Stephen Dorrell in October 1974, five years before being elected in Loughborough, and becoming Baby of the House as well as the first elected MP to be born during the late HM Queen Elizabeth II's reign, And he also defeated future Liberal Democrat MP Jo Swinson in 2001. He even defeated Mr Bean in 1979 (well, a Conservative candidate called Michael Bean, anyway - and nothing to do with Charles Hawtrey's character in Carry on Teacher either).

[andrec]

Sad to hear of his passing. Speaking non-politically, he came across as a decent man to me. Certainly one of the old breed of Labour MPs and he did stick out a bit among Blair and Mandelson's 'New Labour', but probably what Blair needed as he re-aligned the party to keep more 'traditional' Labour supporters/voters on-board. RIP.

[George 1978]

ADDENDUM: Prescott was defeated himself in 1966 when he stood against Conservative Sir Ian Perciival in Southport - ironically, the same constituency had elected its very first Labour MP at the 2024 General Election.