Talk:Michael Foot

Make up your minds - a donkey jacket or a duffel coat?
You can't have it both ways.

Biography assessment rating comment
The article may be improved by following the WikiProject Biography 11 easy steps to producing at least a B article. Cite sources. -- Abebenjoe 07:24, 6 March 2007 (UTC)

Comments
not... a good orator...

This does not do Foot justice - before his election as Leader he had the reputation of being a very effective left-wing orator. The rather different challenges of being Leader of a 'broad church' party did appear to dampen his natural style though. Linuxlad 20:49, 14 Nov 2004 (UTC)

'Wilson came to an accomodation with Foot as its Leader...' Eh?

I think you may mean

'Wilson, as its Leader, came to an accomodation with Foot...' Linuxlad 20:25, 2 Dec 2004 (UTC)

This was an outrage from NPOV perspective, including idiotic libel. Needs care. . . —Preceding unsigned comment added by Paulanderson (talk • contribs) 01:08, 26 December 2004

Reading habits
I've fixed the English of that final paragraph about Foot's reading habits, and also removed the reference to Hazlitt being "lesser known", on account of him being the most important English essayist of the nineteenth centuryBedesboy 21:08, 9 February 2007 (UTC)

WWII
As it stands, there's no explanation of how or why Foot, who was of military age, was not in the armed forces during the war. Was editing a newspaper a reserved occupation? If anyone knows, I think this merits explanation.Bedesboy 21:08, 9 February 2007 (UTC)

I couldn't agree more. Everything I have read and heard supports the view that he was a consciencious objector. Apparently he had some sort of skin disease which prevented him from being called up, but on the other hand, he didn't even serve in the Home Guard. This fact is always ignored by his supporters, who also conveniently forget that he refused to vote in favour of rearmament in the 30s. Try as hard as you can but it is extremely difficult to find out why he didn't serve in some capacity in WW2. His supporters just don't want to discuss it.

Paul Murphy. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.40.178.247 (talk) 19:11, 8 April 2007 (UTC)

He volunteered but was turned down because of his asthma - (Interviewer) "French readers who know your name from the post-war Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (C.N.D.) might presume that you did not fight in World War II because you were a Conscientious Objector to war. In fact this is not the case. Serious health problems prevented you from being a volunteer or a conscript. Had the situation been different, given the British people’s tremendous determination to fight, do you think you might have served in the armed forces?" (Michael Foot) Yes indeed. I went along as soon as the war was declared, but I was turned down because I had asthma, chronic asthma. Yet I was in London throughout the whole of the Blitz, and I was doing, I think, an important job. I was not a Conscientious Objector because I had never been. I respect Conscientious Objectors, but I’d never taken their view about war resistance. In the First World War, those who refused to participate had, I think, a much stronger case.

From "British Society during World War Two - An interview with Michael Foot", by Norma Denny, found at. DuncanHill (talk) 12:22, 10 April 2008 (UTC)

He was also trained in assasination and terrorism as part of a last ditch resistance movement if Britain was invaded. But the only reference is from a Quiz show — Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.180.171.98 (talk) 19:48, 12 November 2011 (UTC)
 * QI says Foot was a member of the Auxiliary Units, which were tasked with those operations in the event of an invasion.

http://www.ww2incolor.com/forum/showthread.php/10623-British-guerillas-1940-41 http://aangirfan.blogspot.com/2011/11/scallywags-scouts-and-gay-fascists.html Halbared (talk) 19:42, 2 January 2021 (UTC)

Relevance of mention of Blair and Brown
I don't think, 'Among the Labour MPs newly-elected in 1983 in support of this manifesto were Tony Blair and Gordon Brown' is strictly relevant on this page. The views of very minor MPs at the time was very little to do with Foot's leadership. It's an interesting contrast with their views but not here. Ideas?

Also, the reference to the 'donkey jacket' needs to be clarified. It's a well-known political myth. The coat was expensive - Aquascutum I think. The Queen Mother complimented him on it. Perspective, perspective! Julian —Preceding unsigned comment added by Juliankaufman (talk • contribs) 12:55, 17 August 2007 (UTC)

Surely it is relevant enough to include that two future Labour Prime Ministers agreed, when they were elected as MPs, with the leader of the Labour Party on Party policy at that time. WP addict 0 (talk) 05:05, 24 July 2009 (UTC)


 * I removed this sentence because it is clearly an attack on Blair and Brown intended to undermine their credibility and is not a neutral comment. It has been made by opponents to their right on occasion. Philip Cross (talk) 12:56, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

Like his father?
I have removed the first part of the sentence "Like his father, Foot was president of the Oxford Union", because Isaac Foot never went to university - he left school at 14, worked as a clerk for the Admiralty and then trained as a solicitor in Plymouth. DuncanHill (talk) 11:49, 10 April 2008 (UTC)


 * However, Michael's brother John was President of the Union in 1931. DuncanHill (talk) 12:52, 10 April 2008 (UTC)

Accusation of being a Communist
Reading this:

http://www.fas.org/irp/world/uk/docs/991021.htm

It appears he was accused of being a Communist, and subsequently won a libel case, I thought that might be useful to this page. Mrstooge (talk) 22:33, 7 July 2008 (UTC)


 * He had taking
 * g money from KGB. Between years 1945-1. So he was agent. 955 93.106.0.84 (talk) 03:54, 1 May 2024 (UTC)

Yugoslavia POV
"took a strongly pro-interventionist position against socialist Yugoslavia in support of right-wing nationalist and Islamist forces in Croatia and Bosnia."

This statement is extremely POV. It could just as easily be

"took a strongly pro-interventionist position against the Serbian nationalist aggresssion of Slobodan Milosevic, and his genocidal acts against civilian populations in Croatia and Bosnia."

Suggested neutral alternative

"toook a strongly pro-interventionist position against Serbia during its conflict with Croatia and Bosnia, supporting NATO forces whilst citing defence of civilian populations in the latter countries".

BG 25.8.09 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 90.202.161.253 (talk) 22:32, 25 August 2009 (UTC)


 * I have made the suggested change, many thanks for noticing it. DuncanHill (talk) 15:47, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

Picture?
Does anyone have a free-to-use picture? Editor of http&#58;//www.philosofiles.com (talk) 13:51, 3 March 2010 (UTC)
 * US Government websites may have one hidden away somewhere; alternatively, one may crop up in the next few days, or one could be requested. It would be worth having a good search in the coming weeks- it is certainly too early to be using a non-free image. J Milburn (talk) 17:56, 3 March 2010 (UTC)
 * Hopefully the issue, with regard to this image, will be resolved by User:Stifle before long. --BF 18:40, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

A couple of things we could add
I would not dare edit this article right now as I imagine with his death it is hit a lot and I will make a mess of it. A couple of light-hearted things, when he became the leader of the CND the Guardian had the headline "FOOT HEADS ARMS BODY". Hard to track that down, but good if true.

The Mirror in the eighties when he lost the election said in comment (leading article) "A good man ruined by politicians".

Orwell comments on him too, somewhere, in his collected essays and journalism, but it is very much a passing remark.

Si Trew (talk) 07:57, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

Blindness
Should the article mention that he was blind in one eye? (92.14.250.86 (talk) 11:41, 4 March 2010 (UTC))

I don't thnk it should, because he wasn't. Are you confusing with Gordon Brown?

13:30, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

Foot said he was blind in one eye due to a stroke. (92.3.255.203 (talk) 13:44, 4 March 2010 (UTC))


 * The Telegraph obituary though says it was due to an attack of shingles in 1976. Philip Cross (talk) 15:05, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

Yes, I think on his 90th birthday he told the Telegraph he had impaired vision due to a stroke in his remaining eye. (92.3.255.203 (talk) 15:26, 4 March 2010 (UTC))

Keith Joseph
I removed a comment which did not seem very relevant, is not neutral and is repetitive: "Foot was one of the best speakers of his generation and the House of Commons used to fill up when it became known that he was speaking [at this point a citation read 'recalled by Angus McLeod in Newsweek Scotland, BBC Radio Scotland, 6 March 2010']. One memorable occasion was when he ridiculed Tory minister Sir Keith Joseph's policies just before the Labour leadership elections in 1980."The link is broken. The extract is here if anyone wishes to review my decision. Philip Cross (talk) 13:15, 6 March 2010 (UTC)
 * The first eleven words of the deleted text and the word "memorable" can be left out to give it more neutrality and less repetitiveness. However, I wish to reinsert the rest, with the link unbroken (thanks) since this speech - the one which I at least most remember - was made on 28th October, soon before the leadership elections on 4th and 10th November 1980.  It must have influenced some of the MPs who voted for him. Ragbin (talk) 00:55, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

Leg end
Is it true that he was once described as "a leg end in his own lifetime"? --  Jack of Oz    ... speak! ...   09:04, 12 March 2010 (UTC)


 * And you are a bell-end in your own lunchtime. --OhNoPeedyPeebles (talk) 18:37, 8 June 2015 (UTC)

Constituency link issues
The link contained in the listing of seats held is a link to the constituency formed in 1983, and while Foot held this seat it does NOT cover, and there is no entry for, the seat held from 1960 which was actually called "Ebbw Vale". The current link automatically redirects. It seems if there ever was a page for the prior constituency it has disappeared. On the other hand, it seems only Foot ever held the seat. It would be helpful if a section could be added to the Blaenau_Gwent_(UK_Parliament_constituency) page to clarify. (But I don't have enough information to do this.) --gobears87 (talk) 16:56, 10 August 2010 (UTC)

Foot Heads Arms Body
That's a funny headline. Did it really run in a newspaper?

The article cites this Simon Hoggart column in the Guardian for its claim that "Foot Heads Arms Body" was an actual newspaper headline (ascribing it to "Martyn Cornell, who was a subeditor on the Times around 1986") So it sounds like it did, if Hoggart isn't kidding and Cornell wasn't putting him on.

It's funny either way, but it would be great to confirm (or refute) that this was the Times, and get a date and page number. Does the Times have a searchable index online? TypoBoy (talk) 17:33, 27 February 2013 (UTC)


 * Can't find it in the 1785-1985 index, nor in UK Newsbank - but a letter on 30 Jan 2008, page 16 (in Newsbank), supports the story:

"Sir, The letters about odd headlines (Jan 25 and 28) reminded me of an all time favourite. In the early 1980s Michael Foot became leader of the Labour Party. He was also a co-founder of CND and pushed for nuclear disarmament. Mr Foot travelled to Brussels to chair a lobby group in the European Parliament to construct a plan to get rid of the bomb as part of the European election policy. From this came the headline " Foot heads arms body ". AL JAMES Bollington, Cheshire"


 * Pam D  19:14, 27 February 2013 (UTC)


 * It may have run after the period covered by the 1785-1985 index. Or -- here's the thing -- it may not have run at all. That letter in Newsbank doesn't support the story so much as recount it. I just searched LexisNexis with the headline, and found the New York Times' 11/11/1980 article "BRITISH LABORITES CHOOSE A LEFTIST AS PARTY LEADER", but not the one we're discussing.


 * At this point, I'd say it's probable, though not certain, that this was not a real headline. TypoBoy (talk) 12:54, 28 April 2013 (UTC)

This discussion started some months ago. In that time, nobody has found a cite for the headline, despite searching online newspaper databases. Of course, this is not proof that the headline never ran. But then, what is? A canonical list of all newspaper headlines from the 1980s? We don't have one of those. But we do have online newspaper databases. Which don't seem to include the headline.

So, though we can't say the story is false, it is certainly doubtful, though told as true. In other words, it's apocryphal. If nobody objects, I intend to edit the article to say so. TypoBoy (talk) 15:25, 13 August 2013 (UTC)

Here's the text I propose:
 * Foot's involvement in the nuclear disarmament movement gave rise to the beloved, if apocryphal, story that The Times ran the headline "Foot Heads Arms Body" over an article about his leadership of a nuclear-disarmament committee. Some decades later, Martyn Cornell recalled the story as true, saying he had written the headline himself as a Times subeditor around 1986.

This version keeps the funny headline without making any statements unsupported by citation (such as claiming the headline ran "in 1986", or that it's known to have run at all). And, while acknowledging the questionable truth of the story, it features the most solid evidence it has, which is Simon Hoggart's statement about what Cornell recalled to him. TypoBoy (talk) 13:53, 1 October 2013 (UTC)

The local university subscribes to LexisNexis Academic. I was able to use this to search The Times for the phrase "Foot heads arms body". It found only the 2008 letter to the editor quoted above. Though, as PamD observes, the letter supports the story, the story of the letter (that is, that it can be found by searching for the phrase) strongly supports the idea that the phrase never ran as a headline. (Otherwise, that LexisNexis search would have two hits.)

At this point, it's pretty clear that this is a great story, but not a true one. It may be too generous to call it "apocryphal" rather than merely false. I'm going to put the verbiage above into the article. TypoBoy (talk) 01:36, 10 October 2013 (UTC)

Oops -- already done. Thanks, PamD! TypoBoy (talk) 01:48, 10 October 2013 (UTC)

An anonymous editor with the IP address 77.96.79.20 changed the last sentence of the "Foot Heads Arms Body" paragraph to read:
 * The headline does not, however, appear in The Times Digital Archive for the years 1785-2007, probably because it ran only in the first edition, and the digitised archive is taken from the final edition.

The point that the digital archive contains only each day's final edition is relevant here, if it's true. It's too much, though, to say that the famous headline's absence from the digital archive is "probably" because it ran only in the first edition. Another explanation, of course, is that it didn't run at all, and there's no reason to call the first explanation the probable one. I have edited the sentence to retain the idea that the digital archive contains only the final edition, but to point out the lack of a citation for that idea. And I removed the language about probability, because the explanation that appears to carry the highest probability is that this headline didn't actually run. TypoBoy (talk) 16:35, 23 November 2014 (UTC)


 * This recent edit by User:ThunderPeel2001 greatly changes the sense of the paragraph, from "here's an interesting story, though of questionable veracity" to "here's a fact, though we haven't looked it up yet". Wikipedia has gone back to its bad old habit of asserting the apparent untruth that the Times ran the headline "Foot Heads Arms Body".
 * It's a funny headline and a good story, so it's great to get it into the article. But let's not mislead. TypoBoy (talk) 19:43, 26 May 2016 (UTC)
 * Sayung that it has questionable veracity is absolutely correct. Unfortunately it previously said it was apocryphal, which is actually making an unsupported statement. Johnny &#34;ThunderPeel2001&#34; Walker (talk) 00:30, 29 May 2016 (UTC)


 * One definition of "apocryphal" is "of doubtful veracity". I'll let you decide whether that means something different from "of questionable veracity". Right now, the article says neither; it just tells the story straight, and calls it "beloved". That's badly misleading.
 * You did add a "citation needed" tag; I took that to mean that there was no citation for the claim that the headline ever existed. A subsequent editor replaced that with a link to the Times Digital Archive. Apparently, that editor understood that what was needed was a citation to support the claim that the story isn't in the Times Digital Archive. TypoBoy (talk) 02:26, 31 May 2016 (UTC)
 * I think now that I was wrong to object, last May, to the way we tell the "Foot Heads Arms Body" story. Reading it now, I see that it doesn't leave the reader with the impression that the headline actually ran. TypoBoy (talk) 15:50, 6 January 2017 (UTC)

Should the "Foot Heads Arms Body" section be deleted?
I see now that this entire section was deleted on 3 February. The discussion about it, in this talk-page section, has been going on for more than a decade. There are a lot of people who know nothing about Michael Foot aside from the apocryphal headline. And multiple sites claim that the headline did run, and cite a former version of this article that says so.

Let's have a discussion about it here. Pending the outcome, I'll put it back. , walk us through your thinking on this. TypoBoy (talk) 02:28, 19 March 2024 (UTC)


 * I deleted it because it was badly sourced and undue to have a section on. If discussion's been running for 11 years, and cared about so much, there isn't really an excuse for it to be so terribly referenced; you've had a decade to clean it up a bit. The section's also been orange-tagged, so is a detriment to the article. Being honest, don't really understand the attachment to such a rubbishy passage. Happy to hear your side. Cheers, Tim O&#39;Doherty (talk) 16:08, 19 March 2024 (UTC)


 * Your application of the primary-source tag seems like a misuse. A reader wrote a letter to the editor, and The Guardian printed that letter; how is that any less legitimate a citation than if The Guardian were to print an article saying that it had run the letter?


 * Your reference to WP:UNDUE likewise seems not relevant. That policy relates to narrowly-held or fringe views on a topic, but there's no fringe view being discussed here.


 * Among the topics of enduring interest related to Michael Foot is the fact that a punning headline has been said to have been made about him. The claim is continually made that that headline ran (for instance, in this Reddit thread). It's perfectly appropriate to devote one paragraph of this 75,000-character article to the topic. TypoBoy (talk) 19:32, 21 March 2024 (UTC)
 * Of course, "Reddit" isn't a reliable source or an establisher of notability. A secondary source would be needed to establish the notability of the topic: primary sources can be used well, but can't be used for that. WP:MINORASPECT might fit my point better re WP:DUE, but they're essentially the same thing: don't go into detail over small things like this. If you want to keep it, make your case in the article by providing several high-quality secondary sources. Googling "Foot Heads Arms Body" on Google gets ~1,130 hits; "Michael Foot" gets ~229,000. Tim O&#39;Doherty (talk) 19:40, 21 March 2024 (UTC)
 * @TypoBoy I was alerted to this discussion by email, and I see, to my surprise, that I did indeed contribute to the wording of that section in October 2013 (took a lot of scrolling of the page history). I have no recollection of what brought me to the article at that time, as Foot is not on my watchlist. That said, the section seems appropriate and well sourced: the "primary sources" tags seem inappropriate as the sources themselves are the topic at this point. So 1100 ghits reference this phrase: Wikipedia can usefully collate the various elements of the anecdote to inform the curious reader, and this well-sourced section should remain in the article.  Pam  D  06:42, 22 March 2024 (UTC)
 * And it's in The Independent list of top ten headlines. Pam  D  06:51, 22 March 2024 (UTC)
 * On the strength of which I have reinstated the text, with this added reference. Pam  D  08:23, 22 March 2024 (UTC)
 * I think I've found out how I reached Foot's article: a few months earlier his was one of many on which I reverted an IP who had changed "Leader of the Opposition" to "Leader of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition", I think getting there from John Smith (Labour Party leader) where I spotted it first, so presumably for some reason I added Foot to my watchlist at that time. Pam  D  08:26, 22 March 2024 (UTC)

Request for Comments
There is an RfC on the question of using "Religion: None" vs. "Religion: None (atheist)" in the infobox on this and other similar pages.

The RfC is at Template talk:Infobox person.

Please help us determine consensus on this issue. --Guy Macon (talk) 22:20, 24 April 2015 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just added archive links to 3 one external links on Michael Foot. Please take a moment to review my edit. If necessary, add after the link to keep me from modifying it. Alternatively, you can add to keep me off the page altogether. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/20090304012809/http://www.britishcroatian.net:80/info/ to http://www.britishcroatian.net/info/
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/20120123054651/http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/leading-article--michael-foots-tainted-accuser-1573992.html to http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/leading-article--michael-foots-tainted-accuser-1573992.html
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/20110708124837/http://cbsnews.com/stories/2010/03/03/ap/world/main6261974.shtml to http://cbsnews.com/stories/2010/03/03/ap/world/main6261974.shtml

When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true to let others know.

Cheers. —cyberbot II  Talk to my owner :Online 05:24, 27 August 2015 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified 3 external links on Michael Foot. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20140323014954/http://www.totalpolitics.com/history/371552/1983-election-alliance-and-skirmish.thtml to http://www.totalpolitics.com/history/371552/1983-election-alliance-and-skirmish.thtml
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20160430065942/http://gale.cengage.co.uk/times.aspx/ to http://gale.cengage.co.uk/times.aspx/
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20100323004842/http://www.pafc.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0%2C%2C10364~1983175%2C00.html to http://www.pafc.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0%2C%2C10364~1983175%2C00.html

When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.

Cheers.— InternetArchiveBot  (Report bug) 18:00, 9 June 2017 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified 2 external links on Michael Foot. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20141228235003/http://www.fsmschool.com/news-detail.php?id_blg=218 to http://www.fsmschool.com/news-detail.php?id_blg=218
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20050510191501/http://www.johannhari.com/archive/article.php?id=26 to http://www.johannhari.com/archive/article.php?id=26

When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.

Cheers.— InternetArchiveBot  (Report bug) 13:52, 26 July 2017 (UTC)

His strongly left-wing political positions and criticisms of vacillating leadership made him an unpopular leader
An editor keeps trying to change the following sentence in the lede:
 * His strongly left-wing political positions and criticisms of vacillating leadership made him an unpopular leader.

To:
 * Intense media disparagement, hostility of the British business establishment to the Labour Party, and criticisms from some of vacillating leadership made him an unpopular leader.

Neither sentence has citations. There are three citations after the next sentence, but when I checked, they only apply to the next sentence.

The lede is meant to be a summary of what is written in the article. There is a sentence (unfortunately uncited) "Foot struggled to make an impact, and was widely criticised for his ineffectiveness". That is not exactly the same as "vacillating", but it might be another way of saying the same thing. Source [26] has a statement that: "The election of Foot as leader represented a dramatic swing to the left". That would justify the statement that he had strongly left-wing positions.

Are the IP editors claims true that there was "intense media disparagement" true - yes, there was intense media disparagement of Mrs Thatcher at the time. But I do not see why that would make Foot an unpopular leader. What about hostility of the British business establishment to the Labour Party in the early 1980s - at the time Foot became leader, Labour had won four out of the last six general elections in Britain - so is it likely that the British business establishment was hostile to Labour? Toddy1 (talk) 22:22, 4 April 2020 (UTC)

Membership of WW2 Auxillary Unit
"It was suggested in 2011 that he became a member of the secret Auxiliary Units"

I was surprised to read someone claim this in a newspaper comment section today. I've read the linked source twice now, and find nothing of the sort suggested. The only reference I can find is in a Mirror article from 2014 which states the possibility, but it is not sourced. Can anyone enlighten me? Is there a primary source for the claim Foot may have been in an Auxiliary Unit? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Amateur-History1984 (talk • contribs) 13:29, 13 June 2020 (UTC)
 * The claim seems to start with QI, I don't think it's known currently what their primary source is, but as it was claimed, I have returned it. I am trying to find more sources.Halbared (talk) 19:53, 2 January 2021 (UTC)

And I have just deleted it, because the source (Independent) makes no mention of the claim, and because a comedy panel show is not a reliable source. Amateur-History1984 (talk) 11:53, 10 September 2021 (UTC)

I have again deleted the claim as it has no RS. Whoever keeps reinserting please consider that it may be comforting to picture a hero of the Old Left receiving commando training so he could sabotage Nazis, there is no RS. It is also not credible he would be part of a clandestine and specialised unit considering the other claim that he volunteered for military service but was refused because of asthma.Amateur-History1984 (talk) 18:06, 11 September 2021 (UTC) The claim as made and the way it is phrased here is worth enough to be included.Halbared (talk) 19:53, 11 September 2021 (UTC)

Alright I give up, this is exhausting. Michael Foot was trained as a clandestine saboteur in WW2, based on Stephen Fry making up history on a comedy panel show based on a shallow boast from Foot himself. Thank you for making me a believer. Amateur-History1984 (talk) 17:09, 15 September 2021 (UTC)

I wonder if this is confusion by QI over the historian Michael Foot who wrote about SOE and Michael Foot the politician? Mighty Antar (talk) 19:47, 15 September 2021 (UTC)
 * I don't think so. Though I was amused by the coincidence. The auxiliaries filled their ranks with anarchists, communists, extreme political sorts who were the harshest opponents of Hitler. I've emailed the elves at QI to help with the claim.Halbared (talk) 21:01, 15 September 2021 (UTC)

You are inventing history out of thin air. Auxiliary Units were not full of anarchists, communists and extreme political sorts. Poachers, gamekeepers, farmers yes. Lefties who edited fleet street newspapers? No lol. The Auxiliary Units overall commander fought against communists in the Russian Civil War, you think he would have put out a call for trots and anarchists? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auxiliary_Units. The possibility of GHQ recruiting the likes of Michael Foot for a special operations leave-behind force is absolutely laughable. And yes, go ahead email some staff writer at a BBC Comedy Show, I'm sure they are well-read on WW2-era British unconventional warfare units. Amateur-History1984 (talk) 17:49, 21 October 2021 (UTC)
 * Foot was neither a Trotskyist nor a Communist nor an Anarchist. DuncanHill (talk) 18:01, 21 October 2021 (UTC)

Capitalization of "philosophy, politics and economics"
We're having a bit of a challenge reaching consensus on how (that is, whether) "philosophy, politics and economics" should be capitalized (or, as I guess Foot would have said, capitalised). Wikipedia has an article about exactly this degree course, and its History section begins "Philosophy, politics and economics was established as a degree course at the University of Oxford in the 1920s". Is there any reason why that Oxford degree course should be styled differently in this article versus its own article? We're talking about the same course at the same university. Surely the two articles should jibe. (Right?) Is this article wrong, or is the "philosophy, politics and economics" article consistently getting wrong its precise topic?

Isn't it the same as, for example, physics? That's a university course. Also a science. Also a common noun, and therefore not capitalized. TypoBoy (talk) 16:38, 17 September 2021 (UTC)


 * I notice that, since I created this talk-page section, nobody has added any arguments one way or the other to it, but a number of people have edited the article, swapping back and forth between "philosophy, politics and economics" and "Philosophy, Politics and Economics". I don't think either of these actions is a credit to us Wikipedians.


 * I'll say explicitly (in case it wasn't clear above) that I consider "philosophy, politics and economics" preferable. But it's clear that people with the opposite preference are well represented in our community. I suppose that that means that some of us (perhaps even half? [or more?]) will have to learn to live with a different style from what we prefer. If it comes down to a matter of taste, I don't see why my taste should be more important than anybody else's.


 * I do, however, think that the way that the name of that degree program is styled should be consistent between this article, the Philosophy, politics and economics article itself, and the many articles that link to it, either by the name "philosophy, politics and economics" or as "Philosophy, Politics and Economics". There seem to be 166 of the former and 416 of the latter. (I don't know whether those numbers bespeak a general preference for the capitalized version or more efficient edit-warring on the part of its proponents.)


 * So, non-capitalizers: stop your edit warring and come explain here why you think we should use small letters. And capitalizers: don't be a sore winner, but instead come explain why you've made the article the way it is now. TypoBoy (talk) 14:57, 21 September 2021 (UTC)
 * I have no preference either way, but a from a cursory investigation it appears to be historical and derives from the American tendency toward abbreviating the name of the course to PPE and subsequent clarifications about what the initials stand for. Given the (again histroical) British tendency toward confining such vulgar abbreviations to the military or civil service, I suspect the answer lies somewhere in that area. Mighty Antar (talk) 17:00, 21 September 2021 (UTC)

So the British way is to not capitalise the title, but Oxford do, and this is the course at Oxford, so should be represented as Oxford style it?Halbared (talk) 17:55, 21 September 2021 (UTC)


 * I think most of the changes to lower case have been done by socks of a long-term abuse account that repeatedly violated WP:NOTBROKEN. It is not edit warring to revert them. According to Oxford the course is capitalised, and this is the course Foot did, so in my opinion we should go with that. If he had gone to a university that does not capitalise it, I would support not capitalising here. I see nothing positive about forcing a consistency on Wikipedia which does not exist in the real world. DuncanHill (talk) 22:27, 21 September 2021 (UTC)
 * We have had the trolling problem twice in the last week so the recent lower case edits are invalid and have been reverted accordingly with both IPs being blocked for several days. I agree with Duncan that the course title should be capitalised per its publisher. If Oxford had used lower case, I would support that. No Great Shaker (talk) 05:41, 22 September 2021 (UTC)

Portrait should be changed
The portrait of Foot at the head of the article needs changing. It's inappropriate that he's literally asleep in it and is a negative portrayal of him. A neutral image, where he's awake, needs to be licenced. JjStrawb (talk) 15:52, 19 March 2023 (UTC)