I thought I'd love Mo Mowlam. I'm no fan of New Labour but she was my type
of woman. She cursed, smoked, didn't give a hoot about her appearance, and
wore her feminist heart on her sleeve.
In the era of the identikit politician, she was fresh air personified. She
told risqué jokes. "What do toilet seats, birthdays and women's clitorises
have in common? Men miss them," Mo would declare, very often in
inappropriate company.
The first time I met her was a huge disappointment. The Tories were still
in power and Mo was in Belfast as Shadow Northern Secretary. She was
rumoured to be a sharp cookie. After a few basic questions from journalists,
it became clear she was nothing special.
Indeed, she didn't even appear on top of the basics. She lacked depth. She
seemed to think she could charm her way through a press conference. Or
rather, charm the men at the press conference, because Mo surprisingly was
very much a man's woman.
When she was appointed Northern Secretary, she did all the right things.
The North is often regarded as Britain's Siberia. Other politicians had been
dispatched kicking and screaming. Mo was on the first plane over. She
really wanted the job.
Previous Northern Secretaries had gone straight to Stormont to meet senior
civil-servants. Mo headed for the streets. She breezed through
Belfast-city-centre, hugging and kissing all round her, taking bites out of
apples and cream buns. They loved her.
"Is she one of the Spice Girls?" a shopper asked seeing the crowd gathered
around. Never has there been such goodwill for a British politician. "I
can't sing, I can't dance, I can't write, I can't spell, but something I can
do is get on with people," Mo announced.
But scratch beneath the surface of her down-to-earth-manner and how much did
she really care? The champion of the underdog turned a blind eye as the
Provisional IRA and loyalist paramilitaries murdered and maimed
working-class youth.
She ignored 'punishment' attacks. Her political pronouncements were
ludicrous. Charles Bennett, 22, a Catholic taxi-driver was found shot in the
head on waste ground in west Belfast in 1999. He had been blindfolded and
his hands bound. An alleged informer, he had been missing five days.
Mo ruled that the IRA had "breached not broken" its ceasefire by the murder.
Her continuous blind eyes and verbal gymnastics hardly discouraged killings.
Under Mo, there was an acceptable level of violence, and it was directed
against the poorest and most powerless in society.
There is much talk of Mo's radical and liberal credentials. She had been
staunchly pro-choice before becoming Northern Secretary. Once in the job,
she failed not only to support attempts to extend the 1967 British Abortion
Act to the North, but to even open up debate on the issue.
She made no gesture to the 1,500 women who every year cross the Irish Sea
for something Mo supposedly passionately believed should be available on
their own doorstep.
Much is made of her opposition to the Iraq War. But I don't recall Mo once
criticising British or US foreign policy – on Israel, economic sanctions
against Iraq, or anything else – until she was pushed outside Blair's golden
circle.
Mo was hugely over-rated as Northern Secretary. She was lucky the media gave
her such an easy ride. Perversely, she was just as much a triumph of style
over substance as her New Labour critics.
She was poor on detail, surviving on a wing and a prayer. "Oh I'm having a
shitty day!" she would say, hoping that would get past a difficult question.
Contrary to sentimental speculation, she would never have made it to No
10.
Charm is important in all walks of life but something more is needed. Mo
didn't have it. She wasn't a heavy hitter. She saw herself as some kind of
Oprah Winfrey who could get the North to hug its way to peace.
After she left politics, it seemed there was no indignity she wouldn't
consider. She became a sex expert for the lads' magazine Zoo, posing in a
fake fur coat beside semi-naked glamour model Jodie Marsh. Underneath, she
wore a t-shirt giving politicians marks for sex appeal – Tony Blair 10/10,
Gordon Brown 8/10.
But in her battle with cancer, Mo was a fabulous role model. As Northern
Secretary, she would receive radiotherapy at 8 am in a London hospital and,
a few hours later, be on a plane to Belfast for a high-powered meeting.
Mo was popular in the voluntary sector in the North because she said all the
right things. She was the queen of PC. But she leaves no political legacy.
It's impossible to point to even a few achievements. Mo Mowlam was a
politician strong on personality, weak on principles.
