I do not breathe your politics
"Comment is free but facts are sacred." (C.P. Scott)
Friday, August 19, 2005
Mo Mowlam, RIP
So, another of the handful of truly inspirational politicians is gone, and in this case I seem to feel particularly gutted. I've spent a bit of the day reading and listening to witty and touching tributes to this brilliant and ever so slightly bonkers woman, including the lovely BBC obituary coverage, which was less rushed than that for poor Robin Cook, and was definitely framed as a fond farewell to "The Minister For The Today Programme".
The generally odious Jeffrey Donaldson (DUP) dropped a considerable hint that it wasn't the fact that she was a woman that secured her untimely and foolish boot from the northern ireland office. "She wasn't like any man, or any other woman". He seemed slightly embarrassed to be asked about it, but it seemed to me that she got the boot because she wasn't above telling an assortment of entrenched and uncooperative career bigots and ex-paramilitaries where to go, or how to go about going, when the situation merited it. Nevertheless he seemed saddened by news of her death.
A clip from George Mitchell, the American ex-senator who oversaw the peace process, and strikes me as quite a serious fellow, saw him wearing an expression of childlike amusement at memories of some of her wig-related diplomatic escapades.
And then there was the peculiar food-misappropriation undertone to some of these tributes. An uncharacteristically humble Peter Hain said she was the sort of person who would "sit down next to you and nick a chip off your plate". Vera Baird, the colourful character who replaced her as MP for Redcar, said she was like everyone's big sister, "always taking your packet of crisps and offering them around". And then from the BBC news tribute page, this:
During the sit down meal she ignored protocol (and her seat at the top table) and wandered around giving every person at the ceremony a piece of her time, in return for a piece of food of their plate.RIP Mo Mowlam, warm, funny, brave, and decent human being (and scandalous food pirate). posted by Michael at 8/19/2005 06:01:00 PM |