 | 'The Speaker had ordered him out of the House of Commons for insulting the chairman of the Conservative Party and denouncing members of the House of Lords as 'thieves and rogues' and then refusing to withdraw.' Murray Ritchie on Dennis Canavan, 12 th November 1998. |  |
You might not always agree with him but if you are human you must admit that Dennis Canavan is a free spirit.
Dennis Canavan on the SNP - "political maggots feeding of the carcass of the Tory Party."
On Princess Margaret - "a parasite".
On corporal punishment supporters - "barbarians".
On Ministerial appointments - "jobs for the boys."
On council officials who take cheap home loans - "bandits".
On headmasters who insist on pupils wearing uniforms - "fascists".
On the armed forces - "baby snatchers".
These remarks are culled from a yellowing cutting recording a conversation I had with Dennis Canavan all of 21 years ago, just four years after he had been returned to Westminster following a recount in the seat which he has since built into the Labour stronghold of Falkirk West.
He was then one of the newer members of the most exclusive club in the world, rubbing shoulders with those who listed their clubs as White's and the MCC. Dennis Canavan listed his attachment to the Bannockburn Miners' Welfare Club. Conformity was never his style.
He was in the news at the time because his talent for rebellion had just landed him in trouble, again. The Speaker had ordered him out of the House of Commons for insulting the chairman of the Conservative Party and denouncing members of the House of Lords as "thieves and rogues" and then refusing to withdraw.
At that time, Mr Canavan was seen as the bad boy of the Scottish politics - which is what made him attractive to the media and popular with Labour radicals in the days when Labour had radicals. In a former age, someone like Dennis Canavan would have been frogmarched off the Tower of London.
You could say that since that interview not much has changed about Dennis Canavan. Today he is older, probably wiser, certainly unhappier, but still a free spirit.
He summed up that interview all those years ago by extolling his twin loves - football and socialism. In football he was a defender, quite conservative, but in socialism he was an attacker, never soft. He said then: "When I tackle people in either football or politics they usually feel it."
Labour in Scotland is now feeling it, big time.
Dennis Canavan has become reviled by the party leadership for his refusal to conform. Excluding such a celebrated Home Ruler and convinced socialist from running for the Scottish Parliament has infuriated so many inside Scottish Labour that no-one can be certain of the outcome of the convulsions in the party.
His enemies are now whispering about him in defamatory terms, and never on the record, claiming that he is unfit to be a Scottish MP. There are tales of drinking - yet there are undeniably several suitably docile Labour MPs in Westminster whose lifestyles make them unfit to lick his boots as a constituency representative or debater.
Labour must be pondering the fact that after 25 years as an MP the footballing Dennis Canavan is still a fitness fanatic and evidently just as strong and athletic as he was all those years ago. He is now preparing to put the boot into the party which his family embraced two generations ago and which has punished him for his individualism. When he tackles, the result will not be pretty. - Nov 12
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