Michael Foot Dies

Michael Foot was the Labour leader who presided over a significant leftward shift in the Labour Party in the 1980s, arguably helping to keep Mrs. Thatcher's Conservatives in power, by both making Labour unelectable to the wider public, and provoking a party split that led to the formation of a new political party, the Social Democratic Party. Nonetheless, for all his failings as a leader, Foot was a highly regarded left-wing politician with, in his heyday, a powerful rhetorical gift for articulating his causes. He was 96. The BBC's coverage and obituary are here.