Paddy

[cosmolinguist]

When Andrew said "Paddy's died," there was a big long pause before I said "Paddy Ashdown?!" it seemed impossible. Yet this single name on its own could refer to no one else in our lives.

It's a cliché to say there are people you just take for granted as always going to be around. But I guess I had been doing exactly that. I didn't even know it, until I no longer could.

I hadn't even known he was ill. It's another cliché but Paddy seemed invincible: tough as anything. There's a quote from what now has to be the Lib Dems' other beloved departed leader, Charles Kennedy, doing the rounds again today: "Paddy Ashdown is the only party leader who's a trained killer. Although, to be fair, Mrs Thatcher was self taught."

As always at this kind of news, your mind flashes back to the last time you saw the person. The last time I saw Paddy, he was telling The Joke at gleeclub. Glee is the Lib Dems' singalong, held the last night of every federal conference and it is traditional for Paddy to tell The Joke. I'd been hearing about this for years but since I'd only been able to go to one gleeclub before this and apparently I'd missed it then or he hadn't done it then, I was excited to finally be able to hear The Joke. (Which itself is a shaggy dog story; that's not the point. The point is how he tells -- told -- it, and how much everyone loved hearing it: It requires an empty bottle as a prop, and when I snuck out of Glee early, not long after he'd done it, I saw the person whose wine bottle he'd used this time bragging about this fact, and I don't know anybody else who could make someone feel special by grabbing a recyclable out of their hands.)

But only after I'd savored that memory a little did I remember the time before that that I saw Paddy Ashdown.

It had been the day before that gleeclub. Right after that immigration debate where I gave that speech, my first at conference, standing up to the party Establishment to ask my fellow Lib Dems to be more humane to immigrants, particularly disabled ones.

And it'd worked. I'd been so sure it wouldn't that I cried with relief when the vote passed. And I was still crying a few minutes later when we were all standing up and trying to get out of the hall after it was finished.

And suddenly this afternoon I remembered Paddy Ashdown being one of the first people to come up and congratulate my most visible colleague, James who'd summated the amendment after I'd proposed it, and me.

I told Andrew this and he said he didn't know that. I hadn't mentioned it to him; I'd pretty much forgotten it myself. As soon as I said it I was less sure it'd really happened: I had still been suffering from that earlier anxiety attack before I spoke and my brain doesn't form good memories then. It feels surreal and dreamlike. I was very glad that one of the first memories a friend shared of Paddy was of him congratulating James and me! It meant I hadn't dreamt it after all.

James tweeted about it very eloquently:

I only got the chance to meet Paddy this year, just briefly - but I'll very much remember him giving a warm congratulation to @hollyamory and I after a tough few days fighting to improve @LibDems immigration policy.

"You really nailed it", he said.

I intend to keep doing so.

At that point, po8crg reminded me that opposing the (national) establishment on immigration was one of the first major political acts he did as leader, when he stood by the people of Hong Kong all being able to enter the UK. A 1989 NY Times article about Hong Kong immigration quotes him thus:

Paddy Ashdown, leader of the Social and Liberal Democrats, has condemned the political consensus over the Hong Kong issue. ...
''This fawning before unstated popular prejudice does no credit to our leading politicians. It may not in itself be racist - but it feeds off and adds to the already dangerous level of racism within our society.''

It's true and it's important and it's still perfectly relevant today. (I take a harder line myself: I do think the fawning is racist, but it's still worth pointing out that pandering to the lowest common denominator of popular opinion is both a cause and an effect of inarguable racism.)

po8crg also pointed out that Paddy was still fighting for British National (Overseas) (BN(O)) passport holders to get right of abode in the UK last year, twenty-five years on.

There, so Paddy said, “I know what BN(O) stands for, it stands for Britain says no.”

I'm proud to be someone he approved of when it comes to an immigration policy.

Comments

[norfolkian]

I was so sad to hear this news.

[barakta]

I'm proud of you for getting a "nailed it" from Paddy, and that he didn't care about the top leadership who might have not liked the message so much - all the better perhaps that it comes from the membership and is supported by old guard like he was.

I'm sad he's died, sounds like he was a genuinely interesting person and decent politician.

[cosmolinguist]

all the better perhaps that it comes from the membership and is supported by old guard like he was.

I think so, yes. :)

[sfred]

*sending love*

[cosmolinguist]

<3