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Frank Field is dead

henry tapper

 

Frank Field

Frank Field has died and our world is the poorer for it. We have known of his illness for a long time, but that doesn’t soften the loss. Only yesterday we remembered his work on behalf of the misadvised steelworkers.

I am glad that Al Rush has commented.

Al carries the flame

Frank Field and Al Rush, should have met in 2017 had not Al’s intemperance on twitter denied him an appearance at the WPC

My partner made a sound comment

“he was the kind of person who made you stop to think about yourself and your views. He didn’t try to win the argument or change your mind, this is very rare with politicians”

Many people have been touched by his kindness and generosity and I hope they will share their memories of him publicly . Here is mine.

When I was young and learning the first things about pensions, I went to a conference in an Oxford college to hear Frank Field speak. I parked my car in the park and ride but was invited to a dinner afterwards that meant I missed the bus back.

I was walking the two miles out of town when a black saloon pulled up. It was Frank Field’s ministerial car, he set me down at the car park saving me the walk.

He was a great person, loved and feared in equal measure but more loved than feared by me.

Once I was drinking with Andy Agethangelou near Downing Street when we spied Frank on his way to #10

“Frank!”

We shouted.

Though he clearly had better things to do, he turned back across the road to shake our hands. This is a similar anecdote to Paul Lewis’

We will  miss him greatly and I hope to add to tributes to him on this blog in the days ahead.

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