Neil Kinnock interview | Labour Party | Election Special | This Week | 1992

[@briandelaney9710]

Kinnock as bank manager. Tony Benn had a point when he said that Kinnock had given up all his beliefs only to find that people didn’t believe a word he said in the end

[@loungejay8555]

He never seemed to finish a sentence, he just went on and on.

[@jonathanleblanc2140]

Thanks ThamesTV!

[@PaulEcosse]

What a calm, nice politician. Those were the days. Paddy Ashdown RIP.

[@Clymax01]

Man I was born in 87 and growing up in the 90’s looking back looks like the 70’s 😂

[@wilsonfisk6626]

"Would you tell us what your views are?" Kinnock: No, I won't. 😂😂😂 3:33

[@BigBlack81]

I love Kinnock but his attitude here could very easily have been seen as arrogance where it wasn't needed or called for. I can see where a changing voter's attitude would have been influenced by how he presented himself.

[@wilsonfisk6626]

That arrogance was on fully display after Major became PM.@@BigBlack81

[@laxeystu8096]

His nickname of the 'welsh windbag' was not undeserved

[@andrewclark8630]

I don't know why I'm binge watching Neil Kinnock videos. I suppose because he lost the elections so (it seemed) disaster averted, but also because he is quite entertaining when people wind him up, and he is quite wind-upable.

[@stevebbuk]

Why Kinnock and Corbyn refused to make their views clear on PR and Europe respectively beats me.

[@zeddeka]

I think certainly in kinnock's case he was well aware that there were many in Labour who were passionately against PR. Most notably Tony Benn and his acolytes, of which Jeremy Corbyn was one.

[@stevebbuk]

@@zeddeka But he was the leader. People are entitled to know where politicians stand.

[@stevel7977]

I love how at 22 minutes, the interviewer doesn't challenge Neil Kinnock's answer to higher taxes for high earners, simply because he has answered the question directly and well, but overall the interviewer is clearly against Kinnock from the word go, if only Thatcher had had this level of criticism from the media before one of her elections, then maybe things would have been very different, after all Kinnock has the good grace to admit there may have been some economic growth between the mid and late 1980's but he also realises that it was "giddy" and unfair.

[@harmlessdrudge]

Thatcher had no shortage of hostile interviewers, the difference is that she knew how to deal with them.

[@stevel7977]

Well I don't think that she did, because the issues that she was tackled about such as unemployment and growing poverty in urban and once industrialised areas, clearly didn't improve. Also I have seen an interview about 3 years ago in which Thatcher was criticised, broadcast I believe about October 1989, focusing on how at the time her chancellor (Nigel Lawson) had quit due to Thatcher being badly advised and continuing with this political relationship despite the unpopularity that it had caused.

[@Svetlanka83]

@@stevel7977 Yes that was with Brian Walden and I believe she was furious after the interview at the line of questioning.

[@hickster222]

Neil gives me the horn. It's the way he does his hair....

[@RexOrwell]

"Arrrrghh!! Back in my all time favourite gang!"

[@Smithy67]

The original Welsh windbag. Spoke in riddles and never ending sentences. Consigned to the dustbin of history.

[@ysgol3]

True Welsh people are articulate, passionate and clever. This windbag buffoon was no more a true Welshman than he was a socialist.

[@eightiesmusic1984]

Nonsense. Perfectly clear and should have become PM.

[@vincentsmit1935]

They said it in Yes PM, 2 limes or less or you'll lose the dummies.

[@stevebbuk9557]

@@eightiesmusic1984 It was clear he wasn't going to express his personal view on PR, which surely the electorate was entitled to. It was a huge mistake akin to Corbyn trying to have it both ways on Brexit, when many of my generation knew perfectly well where he stood.

[@moran68]

Lord Kinnock ! What a hypocrite !

[@eightiesmusic1984]

Why?

[@moran68]

@@eightiesmusic1984 When he was leader of the Labour Party he was against peerages, but when he left politics he gladly took one .

[@eightiesmusic1984]

@@moran68 Most people would do the same. Too easy to point the figure at behaviour the majority would replicate. It's resentment at not having the same privileges. The House of Lords should be abolished but it is the political class that has to make that decision. It is nothing to do with Kinnock. One person turning down a peerage is not going to make the slightest difference. He may have changed his mind so it is reductive to cry hypocrisy. While it should be abolished and replaced with an elected chamber, it does do important work in scrutinising government legislation and holding government to account. In the big scheme of things there is far worse- perspective really is needed. Ultimately, who cares? There are much more important issues that are overlooked when it comes to Tory behaviour. Then it's ok.

[@selahanany5645]

@@moran68Why is that hypocritical? What would him not taking a peerage help to abolish peerages? Would him being a lord make him supportive of the lords?

[@moran68]

@@selahanany5645 You make a personal stand against them , he was criticising them before ! Then takes one !

[@Ray-xh6gb]

That year labour could not turn the majority that year

[@leonblittle226]

15 mins in and you can tell this man was as interesting as white paint drying in a cold room

[@BRYANGauld]

really interesting iterview topics . May 2023 UK

[@Myndir]

The best prime minister to never have. (Ok, there have been much worse, but there was always something faintly absurd about Neil Kinnock, even though IDS/Michael Foot/George Lansbury were all less suited to being PM. I think that it was that he combined a theatric level of passion with a lot of "flexibility" about his professed beliefs - like Laurence Olivier going full thespian, but playing Ollie from The Thick of It.)

[@Ray-xh6gb]

A careingbkind of guy Welsh man I think he liked Cardiff city

[@lesserspottedherbert5076]

Ginger Tosser.

[@krisburgess2857]

Again stands for nothing just sound bites and no nonsense dribble

[@stevel7977]

Thursday April 9th 1992, the day we should have had a Labour government, because what we actually got with Major was 5 years as a national joke. In 1983 the arrogant tory government of the time famously commented "the longest suicide note in history" in reference to the Labour Party's election manifesto, but what is obviously worse is the longest suicide note in history of Major's government, by 1995/6 it was pretty obvious that Labour would win the next election and surprise, surprise they did, but for the sake of healthcare, education, welfare, housing and public transport it should have come sooner.

[@janball1383]

No it was Labour that called it the longest suicide note in history. And the 1997 Tory manifesto wasn't that long. Who's arrogant?

[@stevel7977]

@@janball1383 To the best of my knowledge, it is the tory party who have used this phrase or even the right wing press. The issue wasn't really about the length of the manifesto but the length of the government and how little they did for public services or the rights of workers. As for arrogant, the way that the tory party has treated people over the years says that itself.

[@eightiesmusic1984]

It was Gerald Kaufman who coined the phrase though he was happy enough to be elected on the 1983 manifesto. April 9th 1992 remains one of the saddest days of my life as I really thought change would happen but it was not to be. In hindsight it was not going to as Thatcher changed the country forever, unfortunately.

[@stevel7977]

@@eightiesmusic1984 Thank You for you reply, I appreciate your comments and I am sorry that I have taken so long to reply back. If I can, just to take what you have said further, are you saying that with, the laws and changes that Thatcher made to employment and society i.e. the attack on the unions, the privatization of various services, and a more privatized society generally i.e. the selling off of council house's, that Thatcher and her government deliberately set out to make voting Labour a no, in many people's eyes? At the time of that election, I was only just five years old, my birthday was earlier that week, but I have learnt in recent years, that the sun newspaper, a paper that I never would read, ran a really vicious and negative attack, on Neil Kinnock and his party, my understanding correctly or incorrectly, is that this at the last minute, did a lot of harm to Neil Kinnock's bid to become PM, if you are aware of this, how truthful do you think this could be? Also, just from a personal point of view, although I was only born in the 1980's, I love pretty much all of the music and music types from that time.

[@eightiesmusic1984]

@@stevel7977 The Sun claimed credit for the Tory victory in its headline the next day. On the day of the election it ran a headline saying 'if Kinnock wins today, will the last person to leave Britain turn the lights out?'. The Conservative press believed it won the election and Kinnock blamed the press too afterwards. I am not so sure about that as many readers of Tory papers do not vote for them despite the relentless propaganda. Thatcher did gerrymander votes through the right to buy policy for council houses at knock down prices- it bought votes from previous Labour voters. Labour only abandoned its opposition to the policy in 1987. However, the long term consequence of the policy has been to restrict availability of housing because councils had to sell off council housing and were prohibited from building new council houses under the legislation. Privatisation of utilities was sold on the basis of a share owning democracy to encourage popular support for it but there was a lot of opposition. The majority of shares were bought back by large investors within a few years of each privatisation. Natural monopolies should not have been privatised anyway- it has been a disaster of the highest order, pushing up prices to satisfy shareholder value alongside other problems. Rail privatisation has been catastrophic.

[@karldelavigne8134]

Kinnock was the worst Prime Minister this country never had. His Sheffield rally the night before the election woke up the electorate to what a disaster he would be.

[@wilsonfisk6626]

IDS*

[@krisburgess2857]

He is nothing but a sellout lefty sellout and became a red Torie aka the godfather of new labor

[@wilsonfisk6626]

@@krisburgess2857 I agree! His son now sits in the Commons as a Tory Lite MP who is married to a centre-right Danish former PM.

[@zachsmith5515]

we're all right!!!!!

[@karldelavigne8134]

@Daniel Lawson Did you read my original comment?

[@bazboy24]

What a very naïve man he is

[@wilsonfisk6626]

WE'RE ALRIGHT WE'RE ALRIGHT WE'RE ALRIGHT

[@welshlad6427]

Used to like this guy but turned into a real hypocrite. Shame. Would love John Smith to have lived longer and be able to see where Labour would have done.

[@wilsonfisk6626]

Kinnock was the 80's version of Tony Blair.

[@eightiesmusic1984]

@@wilsonfisk6626 Not true- he retained a belief in democratic socialism. Blair capitulated to neoliberalism by accepting the Thatcherite settlement. He hollowed out the Labour Party. If Kinnock had become Prime Minister the next few decades would have been very different. The same can be said if John Smith had lived. Much closer to continental European social democratic policies, almost certainly higher taxation for the rich and reduction of income inequality, reversal of anti trade union laws, no UK involvement in Iraq, no austerity and no Brexit. The latter is a product of neoliberalism, a cry of rage by the dispossessed and left behind. No excuse but the victims of deindustrialisation took out their anger by blaming immigrants in voting leave in 2016.

[@erniemccracken2429]

Smith was a good bloke but all Prime Ministers let people down in one way or the other, and Smith would have been no different.