Bob Crow

De mortuis nil nisi bonum. 

That never made any sense to me, and always seems like an attempt to stifle open, honest discussion. An unchallenged triumph of received wisdom. An uncontested loss. It always seemed to be redolent of emotional blackmail: an insistence on one view rather than many, along with a refusal to discuss what that view should be. It feels analogous to the concept that we never criticise the army when it is in action, which actually is exactly the time that critical faculties ought to be on high alert. 

Well, Max Hastings does not believe in de mortuis nil nisi bonum either. In today's Daily Mail he has written a piece on Bob Crow under the headline: A tragic death, yes. But in the name of sanity why are so many sanctifying Bob Crow? 

Max Hastings is entitled to his view, which is that Bob Crow was at heart the spawn of the devil, a political agitator of the worst kind, being inexplicably successful. 

The headline is not Max Hasting's own, of course, and he is not responsible for it. But his piece does wonder aloud why so many, including political foes, have spoken so well of Bob Crow. 

Is the answer, in part at least, that here was an honest man, a palpably honest man, a man who not only survived but succeeded in a field where honest men (or women) are not exactly over-supplied ? 

Is it in part that people knew where they stood with Bob Crow because he believed in what he was doing and saying ? 

In politics, "honest politician" feels like a contradiction in terms, like "military intelligence". Vonnegut suggested that when we listen to a politician, we do not listen to the content. Instead, we are checking the words and gestures against a simple construct and asking ourselves: is this an honest person ? 

Honest people are not always comfortable. They do not conform their truths to sit the audience, the circumstances. They can seem difficult, belligerent, unreasonable, contradictory, obtuse. 

Mrs Thatcher and Bob Crow amongst their polar political differences managed to share this trait: they were honest, and believed in their cause. 

Such conviction, such uncompromising directness is now so rare, so unicorn-like, that it inspires almost involuntary affection. 

With Bob Crow you might not always have liked where you stood, but at least you knew where you stood. 

And so did he. 

We are all poorer by his death.