Neil Kinnock understood that Labour was about to lose – and lose big. But two days before the 1983 general election, the then shadow education secretary (with sights on higher office) delivered, politics aside, one of the finest pieces of oratory by any British politician since the war. Speaking from Bridgend in Wales, Kinnock said:
“If Margaret Thatcher wins on Thursday, I warn you not to be ordinary, I warn you not to be young, I warn you not to fall ill, and I warn you not to grow old.”
