Sorry to hear that General Sir Mike Jackson, former head of the British Army, has died aged 80.
In June 2012 Sir Mike was the principal guest speaker at the very first Forest Freedom Dinner at Boisdale of Canary Wharf.
I wrote about the event here, commenting that, ‘None of us was quite sure what Sir Mike would say’.
This was because we booked him through a speaker agency and although I briefed him on the nature of the event I wasn’t sure he fully understood what Forest was or what we stood for:
In the event he suggested that the world would be a better place if people were allowed to take responsibility for their own actions. Civil servants (a pet hate) and senior politicians are guilty of micro-managing our lives and we are the poorer for it.
That aside, I remember it being a funny speech, delivered with enormous charm.
Amusingly, one of the guests was a journalist from the Scotsman who managed to turn an off-the-cuff remark into a minor diplomatic incident:
The former commander of Britain’s armed forces, General Sir Mike Jackson, has caused controversy after he referred to Scotland as “north Britain” in a speech in London.
Sir Mike was the lead speaker at the Freedom Dinner organised by the tobacco industry (sic) to oppose attempts to bring in plain packaging.
In an aside on the diplomatic benefits of whisky, the general referred to it as the drink which comes from “as I insist on calling it, north Britain”.
Needless to say this didn’t go down well with the SNP whose Westminster leader Angus Robertson told the paper:
“Describing Scotland as north Britain went out of fashion a long time ago, even for Unionists. I doubt that the anti-independence campaign will be pleased by their latest supporter and his derogatory intervention.”
Either way, our speaker was good value and although it was probably just another after dinner gig for him he seemed to enjoy himself.
For a full appreciation of his life see General Sir Mike Jackson obituary, high-profile British army head (The Times), and General Sir Mike Jackson, former head of British Army, dies aged 80 (Independent).
According to the latter:
During the Kosovo War, he famously refused an order from American General Wesley Clark to block the runways of Pristina Airport and isolate the Russian contingent that was positioned there. He reportedly told General Clark: “I’m not going to start the Third World War for you”.
The incident earned Sir Mike the nickname “Macho Jacko” in British tabloid newspapers.
Above: General Sir Mike Jackson GCB, CBE, DSO addressing the Forest Freedom Dinner at Boisdale of Canary Wharf in 2012