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95-YEAR-OLD activist Harry Leslie Smith has died. Smith, who was an RAF veteran, had become a vocal opponent of austerity in recent years, and found a natural platform on Twitter.
The nonagenarian was often found tweeting about British politics and the refugee crisis on his account Harry’s Last Stand, or on his Facebook page of the same name. In recent days he had been hospitalised in Canada after a fall, and his son had tweeted about his progress.
The technology that Smith used to communicate with people could barely have been imagined when he was born – he had a podcast as well as his social media sites. He also was an author, having written the books Don’t Let My Past Be Your Future, Harry’s Last Stand and Love Among The Ruins. On Twitter, he amassed 254,000 followers.
It was a speech that Smith gave at the Labour conference in 2014 which catapulted him to wider fame. In it, he spoke about the NHS, warning that the UK needed to “be vigilant” about it. The NHS is one of the cornerstones of Labour policy.
Smith was born in 1923 in Barnsley, Yorkshire, and lived through the Great Depression. He was passionate about social healthcare like the NHS because of his sister’s death from tuberculosis in an infirmary. Both Smith’s father and sister were buried in unmarked paupers’ graves.
His childhood and experiences with poverty spurred him on later in life to become an outspoken opponent of austerity, anti-immigration rhetoric and Conservative policies. He spoke about how he was worried about the rise of fascism and the impact of austerity on people.
He penned a column for The Guardian about how he would not wear a poppy because he felt that British politicians were using past wars to “bolster our flagging belief in national austerity or to compel us to surrender our rights as citizens, in the name of the public good”.
Some called him “the world’s oldest rebel” for his stance on political topics.
Earlier this year, he began a Last Stand Refugee Tour, where he visited refugee camps in Europe. On his fundraising page for the tour, he said:
For close to one hundred years, I have witnessed humanity at its best and worst. And right now in this present age, mankind is in one of its most difficult stages.
Harry married Friede after meeting her in Hamburg following WWII, and the couple – who were married for 54 years – settled in Canada. Friede died in 1999. He is survived by his three sons, including John who tweeted about his father’s last days.
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Go noonan, there is only one way you can satisfy electorate, burn senior bondholders or else loose all respect from us, If you back out.
He looks like a bull dog chewing a wasp, but I think hes the only one with any guts and backbone in the Government and that he has found his place in Finance. Burn ‘em Michael, look after Ireland before the EU currency! The EU will do everything it can to keep the Euro so tell ‘em we will burn them all, close the banks and open our own new bank not linked to EU based on Irish deposits and then see what they have to say about interet rates and corporation tax – tell ‘em will cut that too if they mention it again !
Could Ireland being getting a pair of liathroidi. About time.
Merkle and sarkozi (which my iPhone autocorrects to ‘warlock’ ha!) are so reluctant to burn the bondholders because most of them are French and German. It has everything to do with protecting their own patch and trying to get re-elected, and nothing to do with the good of Europe as a whole. We need to be part of Europe, but the cowtowing and grovelling needs to be over. The bondholders should have to carry their own pain, it was a failed investment. If they could reap the benefits, which they did, they should have to take the burden as well.
It’s like a poker game out there , and Noonan has the face and the balls to get us a better deal .who else would you send ,(he’s from Limerick )
Anyone explain how a Greek default would have consequences for Ireland?
Just wondering.
Putting more debt on top of more debt in Greece is solving nothing………and very bad financial advice…………I hope the people on the streets of Greece win….
The euro is a cobbled together currency and is doomed to failure,its only function is to keep Merkin and Kermit important in their own minds.
Several of the newspaper pundits forecast [ some six months ago ?] that the real crunch would come here in June/July when the fight to pay bills got too much and when the money borrowed from family and friends to avoid the shame of not paying the mortgage dried up.I think one writer gave advice on how to stuff the building society and keep the roof over ones head by using the courts ? Will we see this happen in the next few weeks?
have your say