My regret over Welsh, by Foot, 94

By Mark Palmer
BBC News

Michael Foot has just co-written a book about his father's life

"I don't really believe in regrets, but I do regret the fact that I didn't learn to speak Welsh when I became the MP for Ebbw Vale," says Michael Foot.

It's a revealing comment from the former Labour Party leader and Ebbw Vale MP on his 94th birthday.

There is more, albeit perhaps not so surprising from a lifelong socialist.

He thinks Gordon Brown could become a "great socialist prime minister" and he thinks he will also understand Labour - unlike, in his view, Tony Blair.

Michael Foot was first and foremost a politician but he was, and still is, a man of culture.

He is also a man who understands and respects the power of language.

When I met him at his home in Hampstead, London, he told me he had promised to learn to speak Welsh when he arrived in Ebbw Vale in 1960, in the footsteps of the late Aneurin Bevan, the founder of the National Health Service.

"When I had the great honour to become the Labour MP for Ebbw Vale I made the promise to my agent Ron Evans - who'd also done the same job for Nye Bevan - that I'd learn to speak Welsh.

I think Rhodri Morgan has been a very fine leader... but through skilled negotiation he's got a good deal with Plaid Cymru Michael Foot

"He and his wife were Welsh-speakers and they understood what the language had done to contribute to what Wales had achieved in the world.

"But it's a great regret that I didn't - I should have done it. And so, I apologise to all concerned."

Foot still pays close to attention to Welsh political matters.

He's been following the recent coalition deal in the assembly government and told me that First Minister Rhodri Morgan had done a good job in difficult circumstances:

"I think Rhodri Morgan has been a very fine leader and he'd been a dealt a difficult hand after the assembly elections, but through skilled negotiation he's got a good deal with Plaid Cymru.

"I have to say that I am quite fond of Plaid - I became very close to their MPs back when I was leader of the House of Commons when they were giving us their support.

"We did have some issues with Plaid but we also had great respect for their leaders and those who had built their party".

[Gordon Brown will] take with him a knowledge and an understanding of the Labour Party which our recent leader [Tony Blair] didn't have Michael Foot

Foot also expressed his pleasure that Peter Hain has retained his cabinet position as both Welsh secretary and work and pensions secretary.

"I voted for him in the deputy party leadership contest and I really believed that he deserved recognition for all the hard work he did on the Northern Ireland peace process".

It is Northern Ireland that prompts Foot to raise another of his regrets: the fact that he never had the chance to work there.

"I had rather hoped that if we won the 1979 election I would get the chance to become secretary of state (for Northern Ireland).

'Pint and politics'

"I felt that I had good friends on both sides of the argument in Northern Ireland and we could show that some old disputes could be resolved if you applied some decent socialist solutions to them".

On the wider British political scene, Foot is overjoyed that Gordon Brown is now in 10 Downing Street.

"I think he's got all the qualities to be a great prime minister and a great socialist prime minister and we haven't had that for a quite a long time.

"He'll take with him a knowledge and an understanding of the Labour Party which our recent leader [Tony Blair] didn't have.

"That doesn't mean to say that he is going to do everything we on the left would like - he'll do as much as he possibly can".

Foot himself has been busy in the past year.

With his niece, Alison Highet, the politician has published a book about his father, Isaac. It covers his work as a lawyer, his time as the Liberal MP for Bodmin, teetotalism and Plymouth Argyle Football Club.

Which brings us back to Michael Foot's birthday. Where will he celebrate it? At his local pub in Hampstead.

What will he be talking about? "A pint, politics and Plymouth Argyle! My father would agree with most of that!".

Now that can't be bad at 94.