FIELD FACES THE UNTHINKABLE
Timejump back to December 2021, when all deadpoolers were kept on tenterhooks by two hospice lads whose 2022 prospects were looking touch and go. One was Gary Burgess, who obliged deadpoolers’ dream scenario by making 2022 by the skin of his teeth. The other was Frank Field. Who made 2022.
And 2023.
And 2024.
TBF, Field marched to his own drum politically, so we should’ve figured the same of him as a deadpooling pick. The long-time Labour MP for Birkenhead had shades of a UK Joe Manchin, though as a devout opponent of poverty, stood for something in a way the coal DINO really hasn’t. Field also admired Enoch Powell, and despite campaigning against the Thatcher government throughout the 80s, was chummy with the Iron Lady herself. After Tony Blair got swept into power, Blair tapped Field as his Minister of Welfare Reform to “think the unthinkable”. The clashes with the Labour frontlines soon turned that “unthinkable” into “unfathomable”, and after a year Field returned to vocal backbenching.
So known was Field for his idiosyncrasies that in 2008 the Daily Telegraph cheekily named him one of the 100 most influential right-wingers in Britain. He took anti-poverty posts under the Cameron government, backed Brexit, and switched to independent under Corbyn. He was 81 and announced hospice care in late 2021, and virtually every 2022 DDP team worth their salt fielded him. He remained popular for the next two DDPs (he also outlived a centenarian weatherman of the same name in the process), and even on the competitive side he was far from a contrarian pick – although Banana feels like a berk-in-head for omitting him, most of the top ten kept the faith, with The Sound of the Underground leading the charge to see if anyone can catch Banana.
Now I’m gonna give myself a pat on the back for getting through this without making any Frank Ifield jokes. Iiiii’ll remember thIIiiiiIIIIIIiiiiiIIIIIiiiiiSSSSSSSS…
Drat, so close…
Frank Field
16 July 1942 – 23 April 2024, aged 81
122 TEAMS (💀💀💀💀💀💀 + 40 = 9 POINTS, 🃏 (x5) 18 POINTS)