Saturday, August 6, 2005

Robin Cook, the former British foreign secretary and current Member of Parliament, has died of a suspected heart attack after collapsing on a walk with his wife on Ben Stack hill, Scotland. Cook, aged 59, was flown to a hospital in Inverness by a rescue service helicopter half an hour after collapsing.

A spokesperson for NHS Highland said that Mr. Cook arrived at hospital 90 minutes after his collapse, and was reported dead five minutes later. A postmortem examination has concluded that he died from hypertensive heart disease.

Mr. Cook was buried on August 12 at St Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh in a service attended by close family, friends and political figures from across the world. British Prime Minister Tony Blair however came under attack from Mr. Cooks friend and racing pundit John McCririck for his absence from the service.

Robin Cook served as Foreign Secretary under New Labour and was a critic of the war in Iraq. He resigned as Leader of the House of Commons in 2003 in protest against Prime Minister Blair’s foreign policies.