The funeral service this week for former British cabinet minister Robin Cook apparently had plenty of strange touches, demonstrating that, even in death, the Labour Party is still incorrigibly leftist and intellectually incoherent.
Robin Cook would have appreciated the irony of his own funeral service. Yesterday, in St Giles’ Cathedral in Edinburgh — the High Kirk of Scotland — he was given a Christian send-off, with the congregation joining in the 23rd Psalm and the anthem pleading for God’s mercy. Yet Mr Cook had been an avowed atheist, who would, in the normal course of events, have steered well clear of organised religion.This was a highly political funeral as well as a Church of Scotland affair. Outside a crowd of remarkable size had gathered behind the barricades along the Royal Mile, to bid farewell to a politician of high principle. Inside, row upon row of this ancient church were filled with ministers, MPs, Members of the Scottish Parliament, trade unionists and party stalwarts.
[P]erhaps the most moving moment of the whole service came when the Scottish fiddler Aly Bain and accordionist Phil Cunningham electrified listeners by playing the Internationale. It is not every day that you hear the Communist anthem played in a cathedral, but by the end of it most of the congregation was humming the tune in the background — an extraordinary sound.
There was, of course, one noted absentee. In the normal course of events, no one would have dreamt of drawing attention to Tony Blair’s decision not to attend. But in the normal course of events, no one would have dreamt of asking John McCririck, the Channel 4 racing commentator, to deliver an address. The idea had been for him to speak about Mr Cook’s love of racing. Instead he launched an attack on the Prime Minister, accusing him, from the pulpit of the cathedral, of “ petty vindictiveness” for staying away, and contrasting his absence with Baroness Thatcher’s appearance at Sir Edward Heath’s funeral. There was an almost audible groan from the congregation as he spoke. “There is a time and a place for that kind of thing,” one MP said. “And this is not it.” “What a bampot,” muttered another (bampot being a peculiarly Scottish word for idiot.)
It's reminiscent of the blended memorial service and political rally staged by friends and family of the late U.S. senator Paul Wellstone.
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Posted by Alan at August 13, 2005 09:53 AM