Voting Station

Michael Foot

Please vote to return to collections.

Politician

The Resume

    (July 23, 1913-March 3, 2010)
    Born in Plymouth, England, United Kingdom
    Editor of the Evening Standard (1942-43) and Tribune (1955-60)
    Member of Parliament (1945-55,1960-92)
    Leader of the Labour Party (1980-83)

Why he might be annoying:

    In a bad omen, almost immediately after his election as Labour party leader, he tripped and fractured his ankle.
    He promoted himself as the man best able to unite Labour, only to see the party's right wing break off and form the Social Democratic Party (1981).
    He led Labour to its biggest electoral defeat in more than five decades (1983).
    One Labour politician described the party's 1983 manifesto as 'the longest suicide note in history.'
    In a poll of Labour activists, he was named the party's worst post-WWII leader.
    He had an extramarital affair with a woman 35 years his junior.
    Soviet defector Oleg Gordievsky claimed that he had been paid by the KGB as an 'agent of influence.'

Why he might not be annoying:

    He was president of the Oxford Union debating society.
    After a car crash in which he broke his left leg and several ribs (1963), he used a walking stick for the rest of his life.
    As Secretary of State for Employment, he implemented the Health and Safety at Work Act (1974).
    He went blind in one eye following an attack of shingles (1976).
    He wrote well-regarded biographies of authors Jonathan Swift, Lord Byron and H.G. Wells.
    He successfully sued the Sunday Times for libel after it reported Gordievsky's allegations (1995).

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 2 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 1 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 12 Votes: 75.00% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 1 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 4 Votes: 75.00% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 12 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 3 Votes: 66.67% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 3 Votes: 66.67% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 4 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2014, Out of 18 Votes: 55.56% Annoying
    In 2013, Out of 18 Votes: 66.67% Annoying
    In 2012, Out of 19 Votes: 52.63% Annoying
    In 2011, Out of 11 Votes: 72.73% Annoying
    In 2010, Out of 43 Votes: 62.79% Annoying