1/. Twenty-seven years ago, I was in Soweto, having driven up from Cape Town for Mandela's inauguration with ANC colleagues, Leroy Jones Hemmings & Shaffee & Mira Hussein
We were watching the news - still high from the day before - when it was announced that #JohnSmith was dead
We were watching the news - still high from the day before - when it was announced that #JohnSmith was dead
https://twitter.com/StefSimanowitz/status/1387130857144606721
2/. Over the decades, the loss of #JohnSmith has grown more poignant
Had #JohnSmith - dead at 55 - lived, he would have swept to in 1997 power rather than Blair & perhaps won another term or two
He would not have gone into #Iraq & the Britain would be a very different place.
Had #JohnSmith - dead at 55 - lived, he would have swept to in 1997 power rather than Blair & perhaps won another term or two
He would not have gone into #Iraq & the Britain would be a very different place.
3/. “The opportunity to serve our country—that is all we ask”
Like Blair, #JohnSmith was a lawyer
Unlike Blair - who'd modeled himself on Mick Jagger & had no interest in politics until he met Cherie - Smith was a dyed-in-the-wool socialist & a rarity: "a conviction politician"
Like Blair, #JohnSmith was a lawyer
Unlike Blair - who'd modeled himself on Mick Jagger & had no interest in politics until he met Cherie - Smith was a dyed-in-the-wool socialist & a rarity: "a conviction politician"
4/. At the time I heard about #JohnSmith's death, I was thinking of another true conviction politician, Chris Hani
Hani - who would have been Mandela's natural successor - wasn't at the inauguration 2 days before
He had been assassinated a year earlier.
Hani - who would have been Mandela's natural successor - wasn't at the inauguration 2 days before
He had been assassinated a year earlier.
https://twitter.com/StefSimanowitz/status/1387099615787368451?s=20
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