Heroes and movements

First, Mick, no human being is infallible.

Look back on Nye Bevan - a self-educated miner who worked his way up through the district and county councils all the way to Parliament. He was always seeking to use his power to do good and, in spite of all the difficulties and back-stabbing, he managed to put on the statute books the finest piece of legislation ever, our National Health Service.

In the late 1950s I attended a Labour Party conference. I couldn't wait to hear my idol Nye Bevan speak. He stood on the rostrum and made his famous speech in favour of nuclear weapons.

"Don't send me naked into the conference chamber," he pleaded. We were all angry - some were crying - yet he was still the finest politician of the age.

Foot was not perfect, but he fought against fascism and right-wing bigotry. He supported the trade union movement with the red flag in his hand and fire in his belly. He was a beacon for all of us campaigning for peace and disarmament, and exposing the truth about capitalism.

I was at the Labour conference referred to by Mr Hall. Yes, Foot was hoodwinked by Neil Kinnock - a turncoat of the worst sort who begged Michael to stand against Healey and, indirectly, against Tony Benn.

Foot made the huge mistake of trusting Kinnock. Yet I remember a few years ago, when in the winter of his life, Foot climbed up to Dowlais to the Nye Bevan stones overlooking Ebbw Vale to unveil a monument to the Welsh International Brigaders in order to keep alive their memory and their ideals.

Michael and Nye are still my working-class heroes. But it is not those heroes who change the world. It's ordinary working people standing together, like the Chartists and Suffragettes.

Ray Davies Caerphilly