Do the Right Thing
The untimely death of MP David Cairns - Labour MP for Inverclyde - has shocked many people, given that he was only 44 years of age.
I didn't know him personally, but he seemed a really decent kind of guy to me - a politician who spoke like a real person - avoiding gobbledegook and party propaganda whenever he could.
But he was also a man of courage and principle.
Because he resigned his post as a Scotland office minister over Gordon Brown's performance as Prime Minister - which he knew in his head was doomed to fail.
And instead of shutting up and doing what he was told - he spoke out and stood by his criticism - for which he lost his job.
Now it's not often you come across a politician with such conviction - willing to stand by his own conscience - against the party line.
Yet he was proved right in the end - as Gordon Brown led the Labour party to a terrible defeat in the 2010 general election.
If more of his Labour MP colleagues had spoken up at the time - who knows what might have happened?
A recent poll published by John Rentoul on his blog site at the Independent newspaper - showed that an astonishing 66% of voters are glad that Gordon Brown is no longer Prime Minister.
Including more than a third of Labour voters.
Sometimes people need to stand up and be counted.
And David Cairns - for one - was prepared to do the right thing and damn the consequences.
I didn't know him personally, but he seemed a really decent kind of guy to me - a politician who spoke like a real person - avoiding gobbledegook and party propaganda whenever he could.
But he was also a man of courage and principle.
Because he resigned his post as a Scotland office minister over Gordon Brown's performance as Prime Minister - which he knew in his head was doomed to fail.
And instead of shutting up and doing what he was told - he spoke out and stood by his criticism - for which he lost his job.
Now it's not often you come across a politician with such conviction - willing to stand by his own conscience - against the party line.
Yet he was proved right in the end - as Gordon Brown led the Labour party to a terrible defeat in the 2010 general election.
If more of his Labour MP colleagues had spoken up at the time - who knows what might have happened?
A recent poll published by John Rentoul on his blog site at the Independent newspaper - showed that an astonishing 66% of voters are glad that Gordon Brown is no longer Prime Minister.
Including more than a third of Labour voters.
Sometimes people need to stand up and be counted.
And David Cairns - for one - was prepared to do the right thing and damn the consequences.
