Our dear Comrade Keith Locke has passed away.
Keith lived in the same neighbourhood as I do and we would meet every fortnight during one of his walks and fervently discuss politics.
He was a friend, a blogger here on TDB and an amazing human being.
He was part of the golden Greens of Sue Bradford, Nandor, Jeanette and Catherine. He was a towering intellect on the Left whose conscience made him one of our most important public intellectuals over and above his political role as an MP.
He once walked naked down the street when he lost a political bet which only made him more wonderful…
Green MP keeps naked pre-election promise
Sunday afternoon shoppers have been dazzled by the sight of an MP walking semi-naked through Newmarket to keep a pre-election promise.
The Greens’ Keith Locke this afternoon fulfilled his promise to walk naked along Broadway if Act’s Rodney Hide won the Epsom seat in last weekend’s election.
Clad in socks, shoes a Calvin Klein g-string and body-painted to look like he was wearing a green suit, Mr Locke strutted his stuff down Broadway.
The 61-year-old’s nude dash provoked gasps and giggles from passing pedestrians, and beeps from passing cars.
At the end of his walk Mr Locke thanked his supporters, but observed the spring weather in Auckland was a little chilly.
Last week Mr Locke said he was really regretting his promise.
“I’ll do it. I have to,” Mr Locke said resignedly. “I was so confident, but I’ve turned out to be wrong and I’ve got to do it.”
…Keith was funny, clever and his righteousness made him one of the most important voices we had.
His contribution to Left wing politics is Helen Clark level and his clear argument for peace and solidarity will be dearly missed.
It was a beautiful privilege to know him.
He was always on the side of the angels, and if he is in heaven, he’ll be unionising them now.
I will miss our talks dear Comrade.
He couldn’t believe Epsom would be so stupid and mean, and neither can we.
Mr. Locke proved himself a man of honour. A shame the Epsom electorate cannot, even now, count many honourable people in their number. It should be renamed the ME-First electorate.
Great guy, surveilled all his life by state snoops and agencies, even while a Green MP!
His “One World Books” in Krd. Auckland was famous for selling papers and books by all groups claiming to be Marxist and Trotskyist, from larger ones, right down to those sects of interest to a handful. He pioneered retailing Trade Aid/Fair Trade type items and hosted all sorts of functions and book launches by socialists and social democrats.
His Philippine solidarity work got many in the unions interested. He was not an egotist, a hard worker with a great history. Rare is the day you find a class left principled member of the NZ Parliament, but he was one. Go well Keith.
Please correct the misspelling of his name.
Martyn – He had a great smile
He had a set of values, he lived those values, he defended those values. It was a very strong family trait. Google, his mum Elsie Locke and his sister Marie Leadbetter
Many years ago, I was looking at buying an apartment in Mt Eden which was owned by then MP Mr Locke (he didn’t live in it). The agent said that he advised him to buy an apartment in Wellington so that he can claim the housong allowance. And Mr Locke told him, while it was legal, he didn’t think it was fair…hmmm
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