In 1971, the conductor André Previn was a star guest on the Morecambe and Wise Christmas special. In a famous sketch, Previn conducted his orchestra as they played a Grieg concerto and Morecambe played piano rather badly. An apparently furious Previn marched up to the piano and said, “You’re playing all the wrong notes!” Quick as a flash, Morecambe replied, “I’m playing all the right notes. Just not necessarily in the right order.” That, in a way, is how I remember the former deputy prime minister John Prescott whose death has been announced today.
But first, the man himself. Unusually for a politician, Prescott was proudly working class. He failed the 11 plus exam to go to grammar school and upon leaving school became a steward and waiter in the Merchant Navy. Later, he studied at Ruskin University in Oxford and later Hull University, eventually becoming a paid official for the National Union of Seamen before, in 1970, he became the MP for Kingston Upon Hull where he served for 40 years. In 1997, Prescott became deputy prime minister, while still holding down full cabinet jobs. That’s the biography bit almost done. Let’s dwell on Prescott the working class man.
Britain today is still not a meritocracy. Generally speaking, connections often through wealth, matter more than ability. Despite appearances to the contrary, the country is still as class driven as ever. And because of his intelligence, his desire to succeed and above all his ambition to improve the lives of the working class he came from he smashed through the glass ceiling. However, the establishment, especially from the right in politics and inevitably the red top newspapers would never be able to accept the idea of a working class man being successful in a world designed for them.
Prescott had an accent, for God’s sake. He looked and sounded like “one of us”. And when he succeeded in life, he was mocked endlessly for it. Working class people should not be able to have the best things in life, like a Jaguar car – and Prescott had two of them. Pure snobbery and the worst thing was that the mockery of the establishment was taken up by many working class people who seemed to think that a rough and ready man like Prescott couldn’t possibly be smart enough to take some of the senior roles in politics and, God forbid, succeed. But he did. He was a brilliant politician and an even better human being.
In a way, Prescott reminds me of my dad who had a vaguely similar life, coming from humble working class beginnings, joining the Merchant Navy and becoming a captain before finally working in Pierre Trudeau’s private office in Canada. I can relate to Prescott’s story because it’s a bit like my dad’s. Smashing the glass ceiling and all that.
I mourn John Prescott’s passing. He was a bridge between Labour’s left wing and the centre left, without whom Labour probably wouldn’t have won so convincingly in three elections from 1997 through to 2005. Today, the Labour government has a deputy leader from the working class – to be fair, and a prime minister and chancellor – who attracts similar levels of opprobrium. Angela Rayner is a graduate from the school of life, who doesn’t sound like the Old Etonians and Winchester College types who have dominated our politics for much of our lives. How can a woman like Rayner be in a position of power? Doesn’t she know her place? Happily, the fiercely intelligent Rayner does know her place, which thanks to her hard work is at the top table. Still, I hear people say, “I don’t like her,” even though they don’t know why. When we in this country finally recognise that talent and ability should be the means by which people succeed, then the glass ceiling will be shattered for all of us. (Three references to the glass ceiling so far.)
I started this blog with a reference to the Morecambe and Wise sketch where Eric played “all the right notes. Just not necessarily in the right order” because that was in essence a John Prescott speech. The syntax may not always have been correct and sometimes if you read a Prescott speech parts of it might resemble gobbledegook. But when you heard him speak, you always knew what he meant and weirdly his speeches were all the more powerful for it.
Keir Starmer’s government is the most working class in history, packed with people who worked their way to the top and not handed power as a result of privilege. Make no mistake, the story of John Prescott was a key element as to how that happened. And for that alone he deserves to remembered. Working class man made good. Bloody good, actually. RIP a great man.
