Thursday, November 21, 2024

'Pugnacious', 'Rude' & 'Chauvinist' - Prescott dies, age 86

Described as pugnacious and combative, John Prescot, a former deputy prime minister in Tony Blair's Labour administration, has died aged 86. Prescott courted controversy during his tenure once punching a protester who threw an egg during an election campaign walk about. In November 2000 he faced accusations of rudeness towards women after France's environment minister accused him of chauvinism. Mme Voynet said, "Mr Prescott blames me for the failure of the Hague conference and ... adopted a standard macho attitude."

"According to Prescott, a woman is necessarily incompetent and can't physically last the course in such negotiations."

In the commons John Prescott criticised for putting two fingers up at the Conservatives during prime minister's questions in June 2005. At the time the deputy PM dismissed it as a misinterpreted gesture, yet exactly two years prior he was photographed flicking a V-sign at reporters outside No.10 Downing Street.

His rudeness wasn't confined to foreign ministers, the opposition and the press however. He criticised the then home secretary David Blunkett, accusing him of "arrogance" for berating his Cabinet colleagues.

Prescott was nicknamed 'Two Jags" due to having his own Jaguar as well as a ministerial one but was later dubbed Two Jabs after punching a farmer in 2001. This later changed to Two Shags after tabloid newspaper reports emerged of his sexual infidelity with his diary secretary, Tracey Temple, between 2002 and 2004.

The nicknames changed as further revelations and controversy continued. In 2006 he was known as John "no jobs" Prescott and ridiculed for clinging on to his salary, Jags, and grace-and-favour residence whilst his Whitehall super-ministry was scrapped.

Further controversies ensued after he was banned from driving, having been convicted of speeding at 105mph on the M1 in 1991, and banned again after a similar conviction in June 2015, thus earning him the new nickname "Two bans". In the latter case he had been caught by a police speed gun on the A15 at Scampton, in Lincolnshire doing 60mph in a 50mph limit.

Following his death, the current Labour prime minister Keir Starmer described Prescott as a "true giant" of the Labour movement and "a one-off". Former prime minister Gordon Brown described Lord Prescott as a "working class hero" and a "colossus and and titan of the Labour movement".

Prescott was not, in many people's eyes, a hero nor a one off. Accused of sexual assault, the philanderer and brutish thug revelled in his status as deputy PM and the wealth it brought, whilst taking advantage by claiming expenses for house renovations and even two new toilet seats. The nickname 'Two Bogs' did not catch on however.

Sources: BBC / BBC / Guardian / Independent / Mirror / Guardian / BBC / Independent / NBC / Wikipedia

tvnewswatch, London, UK

No comments: