News

New Ground 69
Autumn 2005

Obituary

Rt Hon Robin Cook

A couple of years ago Robin gave me a present of a book of writings about the Scottish mountains. He knew that I shared his passion for the landscape and hills of Scotland; and after his tragically early death this August on Ben Stack in the far north, I shall treasure that book with more pride and more sorrow than I could ever have imagined before.

Robin has left a gaping hole in British politics and public life; and the environmental cause has lost a powerful advocate. We all know the pubThlic record: the commanding parliamentary performances; the routing of the then Conservative Government over the Scott Inquiry; the dedicated work as Foreign Secretary, attempting to put ethical issues and considerations back into the realpolitik of diplomacy; the reforming zeal he brought to his role as Leader of the House of Commons; the integrity of his resignation from the Cabinet over Iraq; and that noble, prescient, brilliant speech he made on the eve of war.

This was a man who had given so much to the Party, to the Government, to British public life. And who had so much more to give, too. Robin wasn't a rebel for the sake of rebellion; he worked himself into the ground during the recent election campaign, going to constituency after constituency to rally the Labour vote. And in his thinking and writing he was already beginning to explore ideas that could have formed the core of a new progressive politics, beyond the sterile labels of "old" and "new" Labour. He would have been not only the Party's great Parliamentarian, but its forward-thinking philosopher too.

And in this the role of environmental and sustainability issues played a major part. Robin was alive - long before it was fashionable - to the crucial importance of this agenda to our politics. He was a longstanding and committed member of SERA. When I was the Environment Spokesperson for the Party I had support, encouragement, ideas and enthusiasm from Robin. He believed passionately in the need for us to husband our resources, to waste less, to find ways of reducing pollution and emissions, to review our economic systems in order to encourage sustainability, and to think seriously about the future of global trade and economic activity. He was able to see both immediate political imperatives and also the longterm needs and goals of humankind. He was, in short, that rare commodity: a genuinely visionary politician.

His loss is more terrible than I can bear to contemplate. Our Party - and our whole public life - will be infinitely poorer without him.

Rt Hon Lord Chris Smith
(Lord Smith of Finsbury)