Roy Hattersley

A portrait of Roy Hattersley, the former Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, in the Kinnock years, pictured before he speaks at the Scarborough Literature Festival today.

I enjoyed having the chance to chat with him for a few minutes, backstage, although he seemed more keen to talk about football, particularly his beloved Sheffield Wednesday team. Thing is, I know next to nothing about football... Oh well. But he was very genial and friendly anyway.
Scarborough has a long history of hosting Labour Party conferences, back in the 60's and 70's, and Hattersley recalled being asked to go and see the then Prime Minister Harold Wilson, when they were staying at the Royal Hotel. These conferences later became too big for the Spa building and the last major political event was Tony Blair's final election rally, some 10 years ago.