Rhys Evans, who died on August 29 aged 80 of motor neurone disease, was a genuine polymath. Formally a schoolteacher, he was also an adult education tutor, youth worker, linguist, musician, internationalist, hillwalker, cyclist and gifted writer of poems and stories (which he only shared with very few). He was fluent in German and Spanish,…
This letter was in response to the The Guardian’s obituary of Denis Healey. David McKie says that Denis Healey was “formidably equipped” for the job of foreign secretary, despite never getting it. I had an experience in the 1980s that made me draw the same conclusion but which also gave an insight as to why…
In June 2011, Sarah Webb, who has died of cancer aged 49, gave a rousing speech at the national conference of the Chartered Institute of Housing in which she told the housing minister, Grant Shapps, that he needed to “bat for housing within government” and explain to David Cameron why housing matters. She reminded him that…