Cocks (centre) with a young Blair (right) and Nick Brown (left)
Vowlsie mentions former Bristol South MP from 1970 – 1987, Michael Cocks in a comment below and on his blog, which reminded me of this rather excellent story about Cocks and a – then – young MP. . .
. . . It might be useful to recount an example of particularly aggressive whipping. It comes from the former Conservative Chief Whip, Lord Renton, in his excellent book Chief Whip and it concerns an encounter between the then Labour Chief Whip, Michael Cocks and a young backbench Labour MP.
The MP was said to be thinking of rebelling, and so Cocks explained the party’s position to him. The MP—who happened to represent the constituency of Blackburn—replied that he didn’t find it a particularly convincing argument.
At this point, Michael Cocks seized Jack by the genitals, held on to them tight while Jack turned white in the face and finally released him with the comment, “Are you convinced now?”
Although the story is probably apocryphal, Cocks, you’ll find, was a very different beast to New Labour’s Primarolo.
I do agree with a lot of your observations on Michael Cocks as a traditional right wing Labour MP.
My point about Dawn Primarolo ‘morphing’ into Michael Cocks was simply a convenient, locally referenced, way to describe her rapid left to right shift – probably further to the right than Cocks ever was I agree. This alone makes her less politically substantial than him.
I have a few interesting memories of Cocks. I recall that he had a tremendously loud and powerful speaking voice – something I experienced at a public meeting on rubbish bins in Knowle West in the early to mid 80’s when I was first active in the Greens (yes, even as a teenager I was, as now, into bins and rubbish!!).
I also remember in the early/mid 80’s being on a Green Party stall outside the YMCA in Totterdown when along came MP Cocks, who stopped at our stall and bought a copy the Greens city election manifesto ‘Green City’ that I had just co-written with Steve Campbell. He wandered away reading it, whilst biting into a pie I think – wonder what he made of it (no, not the pie!). I’ve not once casually bumped into Primarolo, except at election counts, in 20 yrs political activity in Bristol South.
I bet it was a good, honest, old-fashioned, real man’s pie too, not one of these poncey pieminister ones 😉
My God! Doesn’t Blair look like Alan B’stard?
http://youtube.com/user/TheNewStatesman
You be the judge!
cocksy was a fucking honest bloke he pulled my family out of a few tight corners. the last & the best what you ever had!
Red Dawn was at the opening of Bristol Foyer in 2001. I mistook her for the assistant manager (a nutcase called Annie). I winked and blew a kiss at her while the tosspot manager was boring everyone rigid with his speech. She looked at me like I’d got my cock out at her daughters wedding.
In the early 80s Michael Cocks used to be in the Hartcliffe Labour club every Sunday lunchtime (as was I), where people would queue to speak to him about their problems. I don’t know how successful he was at solving these problems, but the image of him having a pint and a chat to people every week is a pretty good one in my memory. Dawn never took up the tradition and Hartcliffe people hated her for years after she took the seat, mainly cause she just wasn’t Michael Cocks!
Pingback: The life and times of Michael Cocks #4 « The Bristol Blogger
The whipping story sounds all in a day’s work for a Party Whip. That’s how the system works, not for the squeamish. So what’s this stuff about “right-wing”, Mr Vowles?
As far as I can see the term is nothing better than a cheap pejorative and it becomes even more meaningless with every year more distant from its origins around the French revolutionary period.
Mr Cocks sounds like a genuine democrat meeting on the level with his constituents to discuss their views. Much better than the modern Nulab clones who just mouth platitudes and party dogma from a high place.