David Lange

[vilakins]

I just heard that David Lange died last night. He was very ill so it wasn't unexpected; I could tell he didn't have long when he was interviewed on Campbell Live a couple of weeks ago before he went into hospital. He had kidney failure and was quite yellow and tired-looking, pausing often for breath. Despite that he was positive, saying he'd had a good life and he was happy even then, confined to a wheelchair but in his own home with his loving wife. He recalled the great shining moments of his life, and if winning the elections was one, another was the sheer joy of diving into crystal-clear water in the tropics and emerging into the sun, intoxicated with life.

Lange was one of the great Labour prime ministers, a giant like Norman Kirk, and physically too. It was back in the 80s but I remember him well for his wit, intelligence, and humanity; it was Lange who brought in the nuclear-free policy here, and who dazzled at the Oxford Union debate. He was a good person with ethics; he started as a lawyer but wasn't able to live with getting guilty people off to offend again. He brought us from a socialist USSR-type economy to a modern western one, and gave us a sense of self when we opposed French nuclear testing in the Pacific. It's a pity Roger Douglas took the reforms too far and too fast when Lange had said it was 'time to sit back and have a cup of tea'.

I wish him joy rather than peace; I think that would bore him.

Vale, David.

Comments

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. I remember him looking like a man who got things done.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

He did, though not in the last few years. He had been ill for a while.

His autobiography came out on Monday so he got to hold it.

[linda-joyce.livejournal.com]

He sounds like a good man and there have been far to few of those in politics in my life time. I cannot honestly name one British Prime Minister that I would call good. The world is a lot poorer when such as he dies.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

It is, but he was unwell for so long. :-( Norman Kirk was also a good man, and I have a lot of respect for our present PM, Helen Clark. I do hope she stays in next month.

Lange was also a very funny man. They ran an obit on TV this evening and they quoted him about John Major: "He was so boring that if he died and his life passed before him, he wouldn't be in it." LOL!

[linda-joyce.livejournal.com]

Very funny and also very observant. I loved the TV show Spitting Image which was around in John Major's time, he was the Grey man in it. He was described as being able to bore himself to sleep in one episode at least I think it was Spitting Image, the memory is going thanks to the antihistamines I have to take to animal sit Pippin cat.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Oh, I loved Spitting Image! I was sorry they only ever showed a couple of seasons here.