The Rt. Hon. Dr. Marjorie "Mo" Mowlam has died, aged 55, at a hospice in Kent. She died after suffering a fall and failing to regain consciousness. She had been struggling for several years with a brain tumour.
Mo Mowlam was a giant of British politics, probably one of the greatest politicians - of either sex - in the latter half of the twentieth century. Her greatest achievement - the Good Friday Agreements, which brought peace to Northern Ireland - is only one of the many dozens of works she will be remembered for. Her ferocious intelligence and independence were an asset to the Labour Party and the country as a whole. She will be sorely missed.
Unlike almost all others from Blair's first cabinet, Mowlam enjoyed immense popularity until the day she died. Her bravery - she facilitated the Good Friday Agreements while keeping her brain tumour hidden from the public - her independence of spirit and ability to connect with people made her one of Britain's brightest political lights.
Mowlam was probably one of the brightest political minds of our generation. Having studied Sociology and Anthropology at the University of Durham in 1968 (one of her teachers is said to have predicted her "the first woman prime minister"), she spent time working for the Labour Party before leaving for six years to the United States. She earned her PhD at the University of Iowa in Political Science, before going on to teaching for six years at the University of Wisconsin. It was here that she was stalked, and nearly attacked, by a man it would later turn out was Ted Bundy.
Though she made herself a reputation during the Eighties as a pragmatist (aligning herself against the more radical wing of the at-the-time unelectable Labour Party), once she came to power in Tony Blair's government in 1997 she was easily one of the most principled members of the government, never fearing to speak her mind. It was this, some thought, that cost her the eventual promotion to the job of Foreign Secretary she had desired, and possibly even any long-term ambitions of becoming Prime Minister. It is said she replied, when asked what the most difficult bit of achieving the Good Friday Agreements had been, that it was seeing an opinion poll which showed she was more popular than Tony Blair.
In the end though, Mo Mowlam was her own worse enemy. Her refusal to rely upon anybody, her cherished privacy, her fierce independence and ability to connect with the voters made her a threat to too many people. There were dozens of occasions in her career when she was overlooked in place of less intelligent, less qualified candidates.
Now that she's gone, a huge hole is left in the fabric of British politics (made all the worse by the recent death of another huge Labour heavyweight, Robin Cook). The lady who by force of her personality alone achieved the Good Friday Agreements, who had the power to stand independent of the government and speak her mind, who made such a giant contribution to British life, has gone. We will all be so much the worse off for it.
Mo Mowlam
September 18, 1949 - August 19, 2005.
R.I.P.