Choreographed funeral

Leo Abse  (1917 -2008)

It was as sumptuous, unexpected and thrilling as the man himself. Leo Abse planned today’s funeral 20 years ago. It was a feast for the senses. The blend of Christian and Jewish readings astonished and delighted. The warmth, truth, love and humour of the tributes by MPs Paul Murphy and Don Touhig consoled and amused. The music was spine tingling - especially the rich tones of the Blaenavon & Pontnewydd Male Choir in the Slave Chorus from Nabucco.

Leo selected these key words of Nietzsche to describe his life.

“The secret of the greatest fruitfulness and the greatest enjoyment of existence is to live dangerously. Build your cities under Vesuvius! Send your ships into uncharted seas! Be robbers and conquerors – you lovers of knowledge.”

The Kaddish was recited in English and Hebrew. ‘Tame’ Rabbi, Dr Sidney Brichto, selected by Leo to officiate today, explained that the funeral prayer of the Kaddish was not intended to console the mourners or praises the dead. Its purpose is to praise and console God for the loss of a righteous servant.

The Jewish prayers had a chilling beauty.

‘What is man that you consider him?
Man is like a breath, his days
Are as a passing shadow.

For we are consumed by thine anger, and by thy wrath are we troubled
Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of thy countenance.
For all our days are passed in thy wrath: we spend our years as a tale that is told.

Father Michael Phillips read the familiar majestic words from Ecclesiastes in the Authorised Version as instructed by Leo. ‘Guide me O Thou great Redeemer’ was sung with melodious fervour.

The order of service contained an accurate and thankfully immodest ‘Tribute to Leo Abse’ written, perhaps uniquely, by Leo himself.

“Leo Abse had all the courage of a lion but, withal, was the most compassionate of men. Never shrinking from the thorniest subjects, undaunted by controversy and holding to his beliefs, he championed the rights of his constituents with zeal and tenacity.”

He chose St Gabriel’s in his constituency for his funeral. ‘Amidst all the tumult of national politics he never failed to give priority to the needs of his constituency.’ Today his constituency repaid his devotion by attending in great numbers. All those of us who attended will treasure the memory of an unforgettable romp of a funeral. It was an inspired tribute to a great, inventive and principled parliamentarian.

Aesop Shipton

Martin Shipton has blogged back in generous and spirited terms following yesterday’s 'fable' on this blog. He writes:-

Peter, Paul and Me
By Martin Shipton on Aug 29, 08 01:01 PM

I like and have a great deal of time for both Peter Black and Paul Flynn. They are pioneers in the blogosphere, and both their contributions are of significantly greater interest than those of most other bloggers.

I have a particular admiration for Paul's satirical skills, which were put to especially good effect during the disgraceful stitch-up that led to Alun Michael's election as Welsh Labour leader instead of Rhodri Morgan.

It's a couple of stories I have written this week about the next Welsh Labour leadership election that have prompted both Peter and Paul to take issue with me in their very different ways.
The original story reported how some Labour people - both within and outside the Assembly - were so disenchanted with the likely candidates to succeed Rhodri Morgan next year that they were speculating about the possibility of Peter Hain and/or Eluned Morgan being parachuted into the Assembly to widen the field. The story pointed out that such an eventuality was extremely unlikely, given that Labour was likely to lose by-elections in either of the seats mentioned in the speculation - Neath and Clwyd South.
The point of the story, therefore, was not to give credibility to the speculative scenario, but to inform readers that such speculation was going on within the Labour Party. The speculation reflects the increasing desperation felt by some Labour people about the choice they will be faced with when Rhodri steps down, and the lack of confidence they have in Carwyn Jones, Andrew Davies, Huw Lewis, Leighton Andrews and Edwina Hart as potential First Ministers.

Both Peter and Paul, it seems to me, missed that crucial point. Instead, Peter wrung his hands in despair at the Western Mail's alleged obsession with matters of personality rather than policy (conveniently forgetting that to get policies through you need effective leaders who are good communicators), while Paul wrote a fairy story with me as protagonist that I enjoyed very much.
As a reporter, I have always considered it my duty to share with readers interesting information I have picked up that most of them would not be privy to. Often, to my frustration, I am constrained by the libel law. On this occasion, however, it was entirely appropriate to pass on what I had picked up. My thanks to those who made me aware of this speculation.

I replied:

Dear Martin,

Thank you for your kind comments.

I was being generous in accepting the existence of SLS (senior Labour source). Is s/he a malicious source, a mischief making-source or perhaps insane or drunk? I think we should have a clue. The tyranny of the empty page and a fast approaching deadline is well understood. They can make fiction writers of all of us.

Where will SLS strike next?

Best,

Paul

Comments

[valleylad]

Leo Abse was an engaging, interesting, intelligent man, a very witty author and a fantastic MP. He'll be missed by many.

Obviously the standard he set was so high it was going to be impossible to follow, so rather than even try Labour picked the member for rome to succeed him.

[paulflynn]

Agree with your first comments. Leo was unique. He achieved more than any other backbench Mp in the last century.It's not reasonable to expect any succesor to emulate him.

Paul Murphy is a very different MP but he does have his strengths.