I first met Shirley as a teenage student. I served with her on the Labour Committee for Europe. I was at her side as she chaired every session of every SDP conference. And latterly I worked with her closely in the Lords where initially she was my leader and, more recently and improbably, I was hers.
Over these 50 years, Shirley didn’t really change. She was passionate about the things she believed in – principally social justice and Europe. She was fearless in advocating these things and was prepared to take political hostility head on to promote them.
But what set Shirley apart from any other politicians I’ve met was her empathy and her charisma. She was genuinely interested in other people, their ideas and their lives. And she had a special magnetic charm which meant that people warmed to her and were energised by her.
One episode sums this up for me. In the early days of the SDP, Shirley invited my wife and I to stay overnight at her Hertfordshire house to break a journey up to Yorkshire. Our political discussions, with fellow guests, went on well into the night – she had all the enthusiasm of a student – and next morning at 8 o’clock, a knock at our bedroom door heralded Shirley bringing us a cup of tea. It was impossible not to be infatuated.
Leaving the Labour Party was particularly hard for Shirley, because she always remained popular within its ranks and could have expected further promotion – and possibly the leadership. But having done so, she quickly realised that good relations with and an eventual merger between the SDP and the Liberals was a political necessity. Her role in creating the Alliance and then the Liberal Democrats was crucial, because she was able to build rapport and trust between both Parliamentarians and members of both parties. And her eloquence, directness and popularity gained the new Party regular media appearances which were part of the oxygen necessary for our future successes.
Shirley gained a reputation for disorganisation and was frequently late. But this was borne out of the mistaken belief that she could moderate the passage of time to allow her to fit in an impossible large number of tasks to which she had committed herself. She was immensely energetic and, in a crisis, demonstrated a steely nerve and a razor-sharp focus.
As one of the earliest female Cabinet Ministers, and a single mother, Shirley faced widespread prejudice, but this never embittered her. She simply got on with it. It did however make her particularly keen to support young women who wanted to go into politics and to persuade them that this was an honourable calling.
In an era when politicians are widely distrusted, Shirley was the antithesis of this popular view. She was trusted and admired by millions. As I write this, my phone has rung with someone who had never met Shirley but wanted to express his condolences for someone he described as a “legend”. He was right. She was. And we will miss her.
* Dick Newby is the Leader of the Liberal Democrats in the House of Lords.
3 Comments
I liked Shirley too. A lot. I first met her on the Grunwick picket line when I was working in London and she was involved in that struggle too. She chatted freely to us all. It can be pretty boring on a picket line so there is usually plenty of time to have a good discussion.
I mentioned this on LDV not too long ago and was surprised to find that hardly anyone knew or remembered the struggle of a group of Asian women to be treated with some respect in the workplace. To me, as a socialist, it was clearly a matter of class solidarity at the time. To Liberals it should have been about support for an ethnic minority. But there were no Liberals there on the line. Probably, for Shirley it was about both. She was still in the Labour Party at the time.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grunwick_dispute
I am writing a longer piece for my https://www.facebook.com/LordRennard/ page but this was what I posted last night from after her “surprise” leaving the Lords do in 2015.
Wonderful to be at ‘surprise’ party at the Speaker’s apartments last night to mark Shirley Williams impending retirement from the House of Lords. I was Chair of the Liverpool University Liberals when I helped her campaign to win the Crosby by-election in November 1981. The Liberal SDP Alliance then went to over 50% in the national opinion polls – those were the days! I admire Shirley Williams more than any other British politician – she is one of the people I am proudest to have worked with.
Bill Rodgers (who was described last night as her first boyfriend) spoke brilliantly of their days together in the Oxford University Labour Club in 1949. I know that Bill actually worked for the Liberals in the 1945 General Election – working out of the same office in Liverpool (known as the Garmoyle) which was later the HQ where I worked for the Liverpool Edge Hill by-election in 1979 and my office when I was the agent for David Alton in 1983. He and Shirley showed great moral courage and skill in forming the SDP and then helping to form the Liberal Democrats.
Nick Clegg spoke movingly about Shirley’s career and commitment and admitted that she had been right to oppose Andrew Lansley’s Health and Social Care Bill. I spent time persuading her to stay in the party to oppose this as it was originally drafted, rather then leave for the Crossbenchers as she considered doing.
We should have put Shirley in the Cabinet in 2010. She had previous Cabinet experience. We have many achievements of which to be proud from the period 2010 – 2015, but there might have been more of them with Shirley more at the centre of the government and I believe that we might have made fewer mistakes and made our case more effectively if she had been more prominent in fronting them.
RIP Shirley
There will be no more like that original. Shirl was a Class Act