Guardian political columnist Hugo Young dies at 64

[Jack Rabbit]

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From the Guadian Unlimited (UK)
Dated Tuesday September 23

Guardian political columnist Hugo Young dies at 64
By Michael White

Hugo Young, the Guardian's senior political commentator, died last night after an arduous battle against cancer. He was 64 and wrote his last column a week ago.

Hugo Young was one of the writers who turned me on to the British press in general and the Guardian in particular in the awful days of the election theft in the late Autumn of 2000.

I had an exchange of e-mails with Mr. Young about two years ago. He had written a piece in a particularly dark mood about how Americans, triumphant in Afghanistan, were going to invade Iraq and that there was nothing anybody on his side of the Pond could do about it; he was appalled that after September 11 Americans had gotten behind Mr. Bush without question. I wrote, first to chanstize him and other European commentators for seeming to think that Mr. Bush's unilateralism had crumbled with the World Trade Center and second to reassure him that there were Americans like me who continued to question the wisdom of Mr. Bush's policies and even his very right to make decisions of war and peace after coming to power in what amounted to a coup d'etat. He responded with a very warm thank you note to say that he was a little hard on us Yanks and was happy to hear that not every that not all of us were lock step behind Bush.

I am going to miss reading his work, which I often posted here.

[emad]

1. I thought his Thatcher biography was very measured and

extremely mindful of the UK libel laws. He deliberately left out 90% of what should have ben said because it would have seriously restricted his future employment possibilities. He chose the middle road and as a result wrote a biog that merely skimmed the surface....
Maybe Bush 1 put the frighteners on him.......

[Cha]

2. Hugo Young ...may he Rest In Peace!

O8)

[T_i_B]

3. A truly fine colummist

I think he will always be remembered for his devotion to the EU but that said he was a great writer and a fellow Sheffielder to boot!

I just hope that the Guardian replaces him with somebody equally good.