Bob Cryer: Socialist/Rebel/Iconoclast

That's a pretty good epitaph. Bob died aged 59 in a road accident, when his car overturned on the M1 (no-one knows why) while he was driving to London. His wife Ann was also injured, but recovered to become his successor as MP for Keighley. Their son John is currently the member for Leyton & Wanstead, 200 miles away from the city of Bradford where Bob was born and where his gravestone stands now, in Undercliffe Cemetery.

With the best will in the world Bradford isn't a beautiful place but Undercliffe cemetery is probably its most attractive spot, especially for anyone who likes graveyards. JB Priestley lies there as well, along with numerous Octaviuses, Jeremiahs, Mary Anns and Sarahs. The old Pennine tradition of giving boys first names that should be surnames produced the likes of Bassett Banes and Fountain Read. If Bradley Hardacre had really existed I expect his grave would lie in the cemetery as well. There are numerous huge, impressive towers and monuments erected to the memory of woollen magnates, Poor Law Guardians and JPs, including one or two "erected by a grateful workforce" (I bet!) so it's fair to say that, as usual, Bob is sharing space with his political opponents. 

As well as his political career, which included a spell as MEP for Sheffield after he temporarily lost his Commons seat to the Tories, Bob was a railway and vintage car enthusiast. When the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway was axed in 1962 he became a founder member of the society which successfully reopened the line as a tourist attraction. How ironic that a railway enthusiast who normally travelled by train should die in a motorway crash; Bob had once famously said that Bradford's railway links were so poor that they were worse than when Bradford City won the FA Cup in 1911. I don't know whether he was a football supporter, and, if so, whether he followed Bradford City or Bradford (Park Avenue) but these days former City chairman Stafford Heginbotham, who was in charge when the Valley Parade stand disastrously caught fire after years of neglect, lies only a few yards to the West.

If you like traditional West Riding streets you'll enjoy this one, which is overlooked by the graveyard:

Bradford Bulls Rugby League club gave Keighley Cougars a right thrashing yesterday afternoon. I wonder whose side Bob Cryer would have been on, as a native Bradfordian but also member for Keighley. In the House of Commons there was no question regarding whose side he took. He and Dennis Skinner were a two-man barracking squad, with Bob providing the genial foil to Dennis's grim sense of humour. Bob particularly despised lobbyists, or bribers as some of us prefer to call them. He would have revelled in the downfall of Neil Hamilton but he would likewise have been appalled at the lower-grade corruption which attracts Labour as well as Tory MPs. 

Cynicism regarding politicians is entirely justified. Most of them have feet of clay, after all. Crooks, liars, bullies, sexists & freeloaders inhabit both Houses to this day, regardless of the silly tradition of addressing one another as "The Honourable" which, in most cases, they certainly are not. Bob Cryer was an honourable member, though. If an evil 1990s Guy Fawkes had wished to blow up the few remaining Socialists in the Commons all he would have had to do would have been to detonate his bomb at Bob's funeral; he'd have taken out just about everyone in the place who was worth voting for.