There will doubtless be so many personal tributes to Paddy. My Facebook and Twitter feeds are full of them.
There have been so many generous tributes from across politics. Nicholas Soames, for goodness sake, and Iain Dale and Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. Paddy was known for not being tribal.
Back in the Summer of 2016, he was involved in setting up More United, a cross party group aimed at getting generous spirited, internationalist people with a social conscience elected. I was initially pretty sceptical and had some questions for them. Paddy was right back at me within 24 hours.
As it happened, the MPs elected with its support have done some darned good stuff, from getting funding for access to elections for disabled candidates to developing a more liberal consensus on immigration to campaigning to restore the migrant impact fund and lots more.
Austin Rathe, once our Head of Membership, worked with Paddy at More United. He has given me permission to share the story he put on Facebook with you all.
Lots to say about Paddy, and we’ll all be to sharing memories in the coming days.
For now, I just wanted to share my favourite Paddy story, from about 18 months ago.
More United had an event for the people who had helped us launch, including Luke Pritchard from The Kooks.
Afterwards Paddy, Corinne Sawers and I go for dinner. The following conversation occurs:
Paddy: “Who was that guy with the curly hair you were talking to?”
Me: “He’s the singer in a band called The Kooks.”
“The Kooks? I’ve never heard of them.”
“Well Paddy, I promise you they’re pretty famous.”
At this point Paddy, unconvinced, turns to a guy at the next table, taps him in the shoulder and says.