In 1994, Neil Martinson was at a training centre for catering and brewing in Tottenham, which had a bar with cask beer on tap, when John Prescott arrived.
Subscribe to Guardian News on YouTube ► http://bit.ly/guardianwiressub
Read more ► https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/nov/21/robustness-dignity-encounters-john-prescott
Martinson, now 70, was working for the Labour MEP Pauline Green, and they were visiting young Tottenham trainees as part of the 1994 European parliament election campaign. A few cameras also turned up.
“To my utter astonishment – although in hindsight perhaps I shouldn’t have been that surprised – John turns to the trainees and says something like, ‘You know, I used to work on ships as a steward, and one of the things I could do is down a pint in less that five seconds,’” Martinson recalls. “And then he says, ‘You lot, you start counting.’” He opened his gullet and sank the pint and the episode, immortalised by the news cameras, became a core part of the rising politician’s mythology – as the working-class everyman, and later as the link between trade union values and Tony Blair’s slick New Labour outfit.
But to Martinson, the anecdote says something deeper about Prescott. “The film crews almost immediately packed up and thought, great, we’ve got the footage we need, we're off,” he says. But Prescott got straight back to business. “We just carried on. He talked to the trainees. He was a very natural guy – he connected with people, he had a great sense of humour.”
“You’ve got these kids in training from Tottenham, they’ve probably never met a politician in their life before, and they’ve got this guy who’s actually a real bloke,” Martinson says. “I think he made quite a big impact on the trainees.”
The Guardian publishes independent journalism, made possible by supporters. Contribute to The Guardian today ► https://bit.ly/3uhA7zg
Sign up to the Guardian's free new daily newsletter, First Edition ► http://theguardian.com/first-edition
Website ► https://www.theguardian.com
Facebook ►https://www.facebook.com/theguardian
Twitter ► https://twitter.com/guardian
Instagram ► https://instagram.com/guardian
The Guardian on YouTube:
The Guardian ► https://bit.ly/guardiannewssubs
Guardian Australia ► https://bit.ly/guardianaussubs
Guardian Football ► https://bit.ly/gdnfootballsubs
Guardian Sport ► https://bit.ly/gdnsportsubs
It's Complicated ► https://bit.ly/ItsComplicatedSubs
Guardian Live ► https://bit.ly/guardianlivesubs
#labour #newlabour #guardian
