Recently, I've been thinking a lot about Mike. Mike was one of my fellow councillors but sadly dies in October 2001. Very soon after I first met him, folowing the 1998 elections, I knew that he was dying. The first time I experienced the death of a friend, and the first time I really experienced the death of someone my own age (over the years unfortunately I have known of quite a few former classmates/colleagues etc dying but after the end of our association).
Mike told a select group that he was HIV positive, and only eighteen months later he was taken into hospital with pneumonia, and he subsequently gave us details of his drug regime and, in typical Mike style told of how Lord Waheed Alli was browbeating him into taking his drugs.
Mike was Labour Party through and through. Although he had worked as a nurse, he turned to working for the Labour party. He claimed his job, before and during the 97 Election was to tell Peter Mandelson every time a newspaper had outed him (this was before Mandelson was completely out to the public).
Steve and Kirsty were with him as he died - despite having fulltime jobs and being Executive councillors, they gave up many hours to Mike. I failed to do so, which made me realise I was not a very good friend. Mike could have died at any time, but in very characteristic style made sure he lived along to watch, and analyse, Tony's keynote speech to Conference, dying just a few hours later, satisfied that Tony's speech had been sufficiently inspiring. His ashes were scattered over College Green, outside the Houses of Parliament.
I have many memories of Mike - drinking until two in the morning after a Labour Group meeting (although I had work the next day); Mike's trademark word of disapproval 'tawdry' - in a Grangemouth (Scotland) accent. Arguments with Steve about the veracity of whether Mike really could have had a thousand sexual partners (I said yes, Steve said I was just perpetuating the myth of gay men being promiscuous). Arguments with Mike about sexuality - I suggested to him the fact that he slept with women made him bisexual, he said it made him a gay man that sleeps with women.
We formally met a couple of weeks after the election. In the first Labour Group I had invited the chair to get everyone to introduce themselves because there were a few unfamiliar faces among the new intake of fresh keen young evangelists with a mission to change Lambeth. But, for whatever reason, we didn't actually speak until a bit later, when, in the Labour Group office I made an overture. I sensed his hostility.
In the July we had an away weekend, which was fundamental in forming us a group, storming many ideas and norming (management theorists will question the absence of performing - that came later). A few days later I met Mike in the Town Hall's 'local'
He, like many others of the new intake, had been warned about me; that I was a Loony Lefty and unreliable. At the away weekend I had shocked many of those who didn't previously know me by being constructive, non-loony, thoughtful, and, most of all, a good laugh, who, by playing the clown helped people to relax and bond. As the months and years progressed people realised that I wasn't a Loony Lefty, but someone wh questioned the assumptions of the Leadership, not necessarily out of oppositionalism, but out of a desire to ensure that all major decisions had actually been scrutinised with intellectual rigour.
In my final two years I was told repeatedly that I was wasted. I explained that six years of being marginalised had rather removed the ambition and drive. I find pavement politics dull and uninspiring (although worthy and necessary). I actually got most satisfaction from the quasi-judicial functions, such as Benefit Review Boards (although I was dropped from those for disagreeing with the Chief Whip), Licensing, Planning, and appeals of various sorts. Why did I get the most satisfaction? Because I have the brain - and training - to examine the facts and make an evidence-based decision.
Comments