Planted by Water

Poor old David Blunkett. Although he is guilty of some very poor judgements and maybe worse, I find it hard not to feel sorry for this man who has just had to resign for the second time from Blair’s Cabinet and probably ended his frontline political career. This was a fighter, a man who has overcome many obstacles - I am not just referring to his blindness, but to the fact that he was separated from his family as a child by being placed into a council boarding school and only able to see his family once a month, the tragic death of his father when he was 12, his fight, along with his mother, for compensation, a continual struggle against poverty, and yet his determination to educate himself, fight for what he believed in and carve out a career in politics. He was a tough cookie! It is easy to point the finger and criticise a man’s faults, but I want to also recognise his strengths and the battles he has fought and won as well as the ones he has lost. Anyone who thinks he stands shoud be careful in case he also falls. There is something almost Shakespearean about this tragedy of a tough and proud Yorkshireman whose head was turned by the trappings of power and his personal weaknesses and folly.