Tony Blair and Gordon Brown pay tribute to 'working class hero' at funeral of John PrescottPA, Pool/BBC
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00:00And that is John we will never see as like again, a man of the people he certainly was,
00:05in a class by himself, a one of, one of a kind, but one of us in the best sense of the
00:10word. Unique, remarkable, extraordinary. John Lennon would have called him a working class
00:17hero.
00:18Like most progressive movements, the Labour Party and power are uncomfortable in each
00:23other's company. In its rational moments, which are too often preceded by a prolonged
00:28period of opposition, the party knows it needs power to fulfil its purpose. But it
00:35sort of distrusts power, finds it desirable but dangerous to its self-worth, will advocate
00:41change but be curiously conservative in driving it, or accepting the pain, the compromises,
00:48the trade-offs, which are its natural accompaniment.
00:53This is the contradiction which John was instrumental in resolving, and in doing so
01:00created the conditions by which that government governed more than twice as long as any Labour
01:06government before it. John had the brain to make an argument and the personality to make
01:14it appealing.