In the furore of Blair's departure, most forgot that John Prescott also gave a few words about his departure, the longest serving Deputy PM, once a man with vast responsibilities; what did he have to say as he announced to his constituency that he would be stepping down?
Well lots on Hull, obviously,but there seems to only have been one achievement he wanted to highlight to point his audience:
"I produced the pamphlet, an “Alternative Regional Strategy” which set out the case for decentralisation, which has been implemented by this government. The pamphlets “Planning for Full Employment” and “Real Needs – Local Jobs” set out the case for full employment. Later I produced a further one, “Jobs and Social Justice” which made clear that economic prosperity and social justice were achievable, that they are two sides of the same coin, again demonstrated by this Labour government. On transport, I produced pamphlets called “Moving Britain into the 1990s” and “Moving Britain into Europe”, which respectively set out the case for a huge increase in investment..."
Maybe he was the fast breeder reactor of big ideas, but interesting that so little was said about Transport, the Environment, the Regions, those things he was responsible for for almost ten years. A sad admission that the only achievement that came to mind was the writing of pamphlets, but perhaps honest at least. The one thing that seemed striking about Prescott was he was the one member of the Labour Cabinet that was totally un-obsessed with his image; kind of refreshing in this age of mediatisation. But how will he be remembered, perhaps it is obvious:
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