How Estelle learned the toughest lesson of them all
Stephen Morgan
In the first-class carriage of the 3.45pm Birmingham to London
train last Wednesday sat a woman with a lot on her mind.
Estelle Morris, former teacher, former councillor, politician,
Cabinet Minister, sister, auntie and leading light in the Labour
movement, had three hours until she was to meet the Prime
Minister and tell him that her decision was final. She had had
enough.
At Euston station a chauffeur-driven government car was waiting
to pick her up and rush her the three miles to Downing Street.
[...]
The list of reasons has grown with each passing day. She was a
woman who feared she was not effective enough at her job. She
was worried that she had misled the House of Commons. The
A-level fiasco had gnawed at her confidence. She hated the
poking and prying into her private life. The very sexism of politics
had ground her down.
[...]
Clutching their champagne flutes, the 'sisterhood' - that loose
mafia of well-connected, well-dressed Labour women, linked for
years by their passion for female causes - was out in force last
Wednesday night, for a House of Commons party to celebrate
Harriet Harman's 20 years as an MP.
The mood was warm and relaxed as Gordon Brown, the guest of
honour, launched into his speech praising Harman. But as he
cracked his jokes about how he got elected the same year a
young Blair failed, ministerial pagers started to beep discreetly
throughout the spare, modern Attlee Room - and the
atmosphere turned to one of indignation and shock. The news
was starting to filter through. Morris had walked.
Margaret Hodge, the Further Education Minister, gasped and
rushed out as she read the pager message telling her the worst.
The Trade and Industry Secretary, Patricia Hewitt, slipped
discreetly away.
[...]
Morris has in the past four days been turned into an unlikely
feminist martyr: either the valiant woman forced out of politics by
a male hierarchy which could not understand that she did things
differently, or the fragile female not up to tough times.
Such myths woven around her departure have infuriated female
MPs, who fear all the advances of the past five years for women
in Parliament may be endangered by the idea that women
cannot take the pressures of running a big-spending department.
Many senior Labour women were left angry and depressed by
portrayals of the reshuffle following Morris's departure as a return
of the 'big guns', 'heavy hitters' and 'bruisers' needed to take
charge in times of crisis, with the bombastic Charles Clarke
installed as her successor and the tough ex-Northern Ireland
Secretary John Reid installed in his place.
'Every couple of years we have to fight the same battle over and
over again, reminding our colleagues and journalists that more
than half the voting public are women and they are so turned off
by Tarzan behaviour,' said another woman Minister.
Women MPs point to the fearless Clare Short, the veteran
Margaret Beckett - 'common sense, utterly unflappable', says
one colleague admiringly - and even Ann Widdecombe, who
coolly destroyed her boss Michael Howard's career with her
'something of the night' speech, as examples of strong women
politicians. Others argue that even though Morris - the painfully
thin, anxious ex-teacher with the telltale bitten nails - could be
nervy, she had an inner toughness.
[Earlier in the article she was crying because a newspaper was asking
her sister questions she didn't like.]
Her resignation has however reopened a more complicated
debate over whether women politicians work differently from
men.
Even the feistiest New Labour stalwarts admit women Ministers
generally prefer to work by consensus, behind the scenes rather
than in the limelight, and to co-operate rather than start turf
wars.
[Earlier in the article her resignation was blamed on a turf war with Mr
Adonis, a policy advisor on education. He won.]
Others want Downing Street to take a long hard look at
the brutal nature of Westminster politics, arguing women find it
personally offensive. 'Tony has been brilliant about promoting
and supporting women but he hasn't dealt with the problem of
what goes on around him,' said one senior Labour MP.
This weekend Morris was in her Birmingham constituency,
attending constituency functions, just another backbench
Labour MP. 'Relief that it is over,' is how she describes her
reaction.
--
...many blacks wonder whether black civil rights and abortion fit so
neatly together. Black pregnancies have historically been the target
of social engineers such as Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned
Parenthood. Sanger was convinced that blacks, Jews, Eastern
Europeans, and other non-Aryan groups were detracting from the
creative intellect and social potential of America, and she wanted
those groups' numbers reduced...
-- Greg Keath, in the "Wall Street Journal", 27/9/89
Bob
Once again they leave the hard, dirty, dangerous work to men.
Bob