From BBC website: Mo Mowlam quotes

[Greeby]

In quotes: Mo Mowlam
Former cabinet minister Mo Mowlam has died aged 55. Here are some of the key quotes from her political career:

"I have several years of my working life left and want to do something different before I finally retire," on standing down from Parliament.

"I have had whispering campaigns for rather a long time and if I'd listened to them I would not be here now," on supposed negative briefing against her which dogged the latter part of her time in politics.

"I urge Labour supporters simply not to believe the rubbish being peddled," on claims by author Ken Follett she was being briefed against.

"Everyone has got to give a little. No-one is going to get 100% of what they want. If everybody is willing to accept some change, we can do it," urging a spirit of compromise on the eve of the Good Friday agreement in 1998.

"I didn't negotiate, I didn't do a deal. If you want progress, you ain't going to get it if you don't have talks," on going inside the Maze prison to meet Loyalists in a bid to restart the peace process.

"I don't think it was right and I don't think it was legal but I don't have enough legal knowledge to be 100% sure of the latter," on the war in Iraq.

"I haven't made any secret of being a child of the 60s, never have. I wasn't part of the drugs culture, but I have said in previous interviews this isn't a new news story. I said I tried marijuana, didn't like it particularly and unlike President Clinton I did inhale. But it wasn't part of my life then and that's what happened," on her student days.

"You'd have the money from tax, which if it were ring-fenced for working with addicts whether cannabis, pills, barbiturates, coke or heroin you'd have a chance of beating it," on the idea of legalising all drugs.

"Bloody well get on and do it, otherwise I'll head-butt you!" overheard talking to Sinn Fein's Gerry Adams at talks running up to the Good Friday Agreement. (heh :D )

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4165512.stm

[CoolOnion]

1. She was one of a kind, a great negotiator.

Her visit to the loyalist prison was an amazing thing to do; she decided to do that on her own, and it turned out to be a turning point in getting loyalists to support the talks. There aren't enough people in the world like Mo Mowlam. She will be missed.

From "A Farther Shore: Irleand's Long Road to Peace, " by Gerry Adams:

"...the atmosphere of the Castle Buildings remained impassive and suffocating...we left the doors to our rooms open. John Hume would wander in for a chat from time to time. Mo Mowlam was another regular visitor. She would amble in, sit down, and put her feet up on a chair. She wore a wig because of hair loss following medical treatment for a brain tumor. Occasionally, she pulled the wig off and put it on the table. Then she would launch into conversation with whoever was in the room. I liked her style. Sometimes, she was deliberately provocative. Other times, she was funny. At times, I got the impression that she was just bored and wanted a bit of craic.

"On one occasion as she got up to leave, Mowlam spotted an Easter lily lying on the table. The lily, made of paper, is...worn at Easter time in memory of Ireland's patriot dead. Mowlam...asked what it was. When she was told, she pinned it to her blouse and left. Martin McGuinness...ran after her. He caught her just as she was heading for the unionist offices and gently persuaded her to remove it.

"Later, when Blair came into the talks, Mowlam was sidelined completely...I don't know if she resented her exclusion. Later as I got to know her better, she would give off about the style of the Downing Street operation, but during the Castle Building talks she appeared to accept her role as secondary to Downing Street."

[CoolOnion]

2. From IAIS

MO MOWLAM DIES FOLLOWING FALL
08/19/05 03:29 EST
Irish American Information Service
http://www.iais.org/

"The former Northern Ireland secretary Mo Mowlam died this morning in a hospice, a family spokesman has confirmed. Mowlam (55) who previously suffered a brain tumour, died at the Pilgrim's Hospice in Canterbury, Kent, at 8.10am local-time. Mowlam had difficulties with her balance as a result of radiotherapy treatment for the tumour. Earlier this month she fell and banged her head and never regained consciousness. She was taken to King's College Hospital and was transferred last week to the hospice. She had earlier asked not to be resuscitated and in the last few days food and water were withdrawn.

"She took a particular political risk in 1998 by entering the infamous Maze Prison to speak to convicted paramilitaries when it became clear the peace process needed their backing. Loyalist UDA/UFF prisoners had previously withdrawn their support. After her face-to-face talks with the prisoners, the paramilitaries' political representatives then announced they were rejoining the talks.

"Mowlam's down-to-earth approach made her one of Britain's best-known and best-liked politicians. But despite her popularity, her political career eventually faded away...She accused Downing Street of freezing her out and ignoring her and at times interfering in her ministerial duties...her memoirs, entitled Momentum, published in May 2002, appeared to show her as a woman who felt she had been betrayed by her colleagues and who suspected that some fellow-ministers wanted her to be dumped out of office."