Shirley Williams

A brilliant and very fair politician who was very feeling for her public.
RIP Shirley Williams, wherever you went you fought for justice.

RiP
Yes she was well liked by many.
She could well have become Prime Minister but left Labour to form the Social Democratic Party as one of the 'Gang of Four'. Only 2 left now Callistemon! Eeks

I always respected her. Wish there were more like her today. RIP

I have always respected and admired Shirley Williams. A life well lived. RIP

I really admired her very much whilst I disagreed with her on certain policy issues and was sorry when she left the Labour Party as they could have done with her. And in a very irreverent way, I loved the way she clearly never cared about how she looked. She came from a privileged background and was firmly in that Fabian tradition of the Labour Party. I would say that basically I always felt she had integrity.

Two very much revered politicians Shirley Williams and John Smith, the like of who we'll never ever see again in politics again.

I also had huge respect for her, they don't seem to make them like her anymore.

Ahhh John Smith - that was truly tragic. A real ‘what if’ political event

For the first time in my life I have shed a tear for someone who I never met.

My husband met Shirley Williams when they went canvassing together about eleven years ago. He could not believe how energetic and enthusiastic she was canvassing for the Liberal Democrats.

I think that she, more than any politician of the last sixty years, could have steered our country in a different and better direction..

How much better our history might have been if Shirley Williams, rather than Margaret Thatcher had become our first woman PM.

I was so sorry she left the Labour Party because of the far left, I
hoped she would have stayed and faced them

Anniebach Discretion is soemtimes the better part of valour and she could see that the Labour Party was moving inexorably to the far left and there was nothing she could do to change its course

Better to work for a party with policies she could whole heartedly support than become more marginalised in a party she gave so much to.

An honourable and honest woman whose death will leave a mark on both parties she worked within.

The internal struggles of the Labour Party have condemned this country to far too many years of ~Tory rule.

Shirley Williams realised that could happen and saw quite clearly that if the UK was ever to become a progressive country we needed an alliance of Social Democrats and Liberals.

If we actually had a democratic electoral system and a free press not controlled by ultra right wing foreingers and tax exiles then it could well have been possible for Shirley Williams to have become PM.

What a difference that would have made

Never really given the positions and authority she merited in the Labout Party.
She fell in my estimation when as Secretary of State for Education she deliberately moved house so that her daughter was in the catchment area of the exclusive Godolphin and Latymer school, thus able to avoid the Comprehensive system she was imposing on every one else.

I always liked Shirley Williams and her mother was a wonderful woman too.

Yes varian if only we had a democratic electoral system. ?

Another sad day. She was such a likeable politician and respected by many on all sides of the political divide.

eazybee

Never really given the positions and authority she merited in the Labout Party.
She fell in my estimation when as Secretary of State for Education she deliberately moved house so that her daughter was in the catchment area of the exclusive Godolphin and Latymer school, thus able to avoid the Comprehensive system she was imposing on every one else.

Not the right thing to have done at all. Good job our current Government are perfect ?

varian

For the first time in my life I have shed a tear for someone who I never met.

My husband met Shirley Williams when they went canvassing together about eleven years ago. He could not believe how energetic and enthusiastic she was canvassing for the Liberal Democrats.

I think that she, more than any politician of the last sixty years, could have steered our country in a different and better direction..

How much better our history might have been if Shirley Williams, rather than Margaret Thatcher had become our first woman PM.

Same here- huge respect for Shirley. The best PM we never had.

I met her a couple of times and thought she was kind and thoughtful with a really sharp brain.

I wonder if she regretted leaving the labour party?

I don't think she ever regretted leaving the Labour Party which was and still is bounded and restricted by vested interests of the twentieth century.

It is time for the Labour Party to waken up to the fact that we are living in different times and we can never hope to progress unless we reform our undemocratic electoral system and move to a system of proportional representation.

I was an admirer of Michael Foot, I hoped he would win the election. I was younger, less experienced about the British fear of people they see as communists, anti patriotic etc
I admired Shirley Williams and still do.
Today I wished she’d stayed in the LP, she was a significant politician.
Anniebach - my dread is the anti Starmer group keep us out of government
Rip Shirley Williams

Is the current anti-Starmer group in the Labour Party the same group that drove out Shirley Williams,l Roy Jenkins and so many others from the Labour Party all these years ago?

When will they ever learn?

I always liked her and the way she spoke although I didn't like some of her policies. She had real intellectual calibre and such an interesting life. In a photo in one of the papers she looked just like my mother.

As you said Callistemon, a remarkable woman indeed. Politics will be the poorer without her.