No Weather Vane, He

Some people wear their hearts on their sleeves. Jim Dobbin didn’t. He kept his on his walls. Walk into his office, as I did almost every day, and you’d see photographs of his family (mostly his grandchildren), you’d see a poster of St Thomas More, a pen and ink drawing of St Jerome (actually it was Jesus when I drew it but a priest visiting from the Vatican declared it was a fantastic likeness for St Jerome and so it became), the minutes of the first ever Labour Party meeting, and a photograph of the 1982 Celtic squad with his cousin in the side.

Family, faith, politics and football. That’s where his heart was. The order changed depending on whether he was in the terraces of Celtic park or elsewhere. But those were his passions. He cared deeply about people and worked hard and constantly for the people of Heywood and Middleton and also the people he met around the country, and indeed the world, who he thought needed a voice. He was an advocate for people with involuntary addiction to tranquilizers and also for immunization in some of the poorest parts of the world.

As well as his work for the people of his constituency, he served on the transport select committee, and chaired the all-party parliamentary pro-life group. He was a Labour Party member of the British delegation to the Council of Europe where he used his 30+ year career as an immunologist to work on Health issues.

Above all these things, though, Jim was a gentleman and a thoroughly decent human being. Before I worked for him, he fed me when I was hungry, he made sure I got home to my family one Christmas, and he always asked after my welfare. If only all Members of Parliament were such good employers.

I didn’t always agree with everything Jim stood for, but he knew that and liked to debate ideas and principles with me and his other staff. He wasn’t at all close minded and often took on board points that I made. But he was a principled man and stood by those principles even when he knew they wouldn’t be popular. And those he disagreed with would never have seen him be anything other than polite and forthcoming with them.

Tony Benn once said there are two types of politician: The signpost and the weathervane. The signpost would point in one direction no matter what. The weathervane would spin 180 degrees depending on which way the wind was blowing on any particular day.  Jim was definitely a signpost politician.

I was lucky enough to go and spend a weekend up in his constituency recently. A working trip but a pleasure nonetheless. The sense of pride as he drove me around showing me the various places where he had made a difference. A footpath here, a lamppost there, a new road crossing and so on. There were loads of them of course. A quick spin around the constituency to help me orientate myself lasted about 5 hours and was filled with stories of people he’d helped and differences he’d made. It was a real joy to spend that time with him. Time I’ll now treasure.

As a knight of the Roman Catholic church, I don’t think he’d be offended that, every time I saw him, he made me think of Micah 6:8 – “He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God”

I’ve lost not only an employer, but a good friend and mentor. The people of Heywood and Middleton have lost a tenacious, principled and caring Member of Parliament. His family have lost a loving husband, father and grandfather. A great loss to the Labour movement.

Rest in Peace, Jim.

Rob Carr worked as a researcher for Jim Dobbin for over 2 years and is also communications manager for Christians on the Left.