Robin Cook dead reports BBC

[afleitch]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4127654.stm

Dies after collapse. Details sketchy.

[Angel of Death]

Seems the good always die young.

[Sibboleth]

Seems to have been a heart attack... sad news and quite a shock really

[KEmperor]

Seems the good always die young.

Young?  He was almost 60.

[JohnFKennedy]

Seems the good always die young.

Young?  He was almost 60.

That is relatively young given the life expectancy in the Uk though, no?

[KEmperor]

Seems the good always die young.

Young?  He was almost 60.

That is relatively young given the life expectancy in the Uk though, no?

The average life expectancy at birth in the 1940s was about 65.  Not that big a difference.  (The current life expectancy at birth is about 75 I believe.)

[Beet]

Seems the good always die young.

Young?  He was almost 60.

That is relatively young given the life expectancy in the Uk though, no?

The average life expectancy at birth in the 1940s was about 65.  Not that big a difference.  (The current life expectancy at birth is about 75 I believe.)

Life expectancy at birth is the average number of years a newborn infant would be expected to live if health and living conditions at the time of its birth remained the same throughout its life. Since conditions have certainly improved in the UK since the 1940s, that certainly shouldn't apply. Also, the life expectancy of people who have survived into adulthood is much higher due to infant and child mortality.

[Sibboleth]

Nice piece here: http://libsoc.blogspot.com/2005/08/robin-cook-1946-2005-paul-anderson.html

[Vasall des Midas]

Seems the good always die young.

Young?  He was almost 60.

That is relatively young given the life expectancy in the Uk though, no?

The average life expectancy at birth in the 1940s was about 65.  Not that big a difference.  (The current life expectancy at birth is about 75 I believe.)

"Life expectancy at birth" is a misnomer. We're actually talking average age of persons dieing. The actual life expectancy at birth for any given year is impossible to calculate as long as anybody born in that year is still alive.

[KEmperor]

At any rate, I am amused by the headline on wikipedia:

"Robin Cook (pictured), former Foreign Secretary of the United Kingdom, dies after collapsing whilst climbing Ben Stack."

They make it sound like he died mid-coitus.

[Sibboleth]

They make it sound like he died mid-coitus.

That did happen to a "rising star" Tory M.P in the mid '90's... sort of. Guy called Stephen Milligan; he died during what is usually described as a "bizarre sexual act"

[Rural Radical]

They make it sound like he died mid-coitus.

That did happen to a "rising star" Tory M.P in the mid '90's... sort of. Guy called Stephen Milligan; he died during what is usually described as a "bizarre sexual act"

If I remember right he was mp for Eastleigh and an orange or tangerine was involved in the act

[KEmperor]

They make it sound like he died mid-coitus.

That did happen to a "rising star" Tory M.P in the mid '90's... sort of. Guy called Stephen Milligan; he died during what is usually described as a "bizarre sexual act"

If I remember right he was mp for Eastleigh and an orange or tangerine was involved in the act

Hmm, now I want to hear this story.

[Rural Radical]

I believe it was something to do with gagging yourself to just before the point of death. Unfortunately for him he went beyond that point.

[Democratic Hawk]

One of the best, if the not the best, contemporary Commons debator's in my life time. He will be a great loss

Dave

[Sibboleth]

Has anyone got a transcript of his responce to the Scott Report?

[kashifsakhan]

i remember that thing with Milligan, one of those guys that like to choke themselves while masturbating.... i believe the Right Honorable Milligan went a little too far the last time he did it.

too bad about robin cook though. i read somewhere that Gordon Brown was going to bring him back into the government when he became prime minister.