John Prescott - A Smart Man

Looks deceived

Until I met him, and worked with him to organize a ‘Yorkshire in the City’ event, I’d bought into the popular image of him as a slightly comic figure, a sort of political Les Dawson, whom Blair maintained as Deputy PM for party-sentimental reasons.

But I was wrong: he was a smart man. My experience of him was twofold. First, when I visited him at his home in Hull, although he was clearly tired, he was also . . . sharp. His questions were on the money, and his determination and detail on follow-through were exemplary. It took no time at all to realize you were dealing with a serious, thoughtful and practical man. I confess, I liked him, admired him actually.

The second thing I learned, and which I haven’t seen mentioned in today’s obituaries is that for many years, under the radar, he was Britain’s key man on China. Yes, he kept it quiet, but he was a very regular visitor to the PRC, partly in a diplomatic capacity as a rapporteur on China for the Council of Europe (I think - difficult to check), but also partly to as a regular and welcome back-channel for Britain.

Britain’s usual diplomatic representation to China has been essentially British Mandarin talking to Chinese Mandarin, in Mandarin. But with Prescott the contact was very different: an ‘old fashioned trade unionist’ talking, well, shop. On that level, Prescott had probably the best relationship with China of any British politician. I don’t know how extensively he used those relationships, but the star speaker at the Yorkshire in the City event was. . . the Chinese ambassador.

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