Shirley Williams

She had a long and remarkable life as a straight talking politician. She would have made a wonderful party leader.
Shame people like Shirley Williams are in short supply in parliament these days.
May she rest in peace.

It was interesting to hear David Owen speak about her this morning. He had wanted her as leader of the SDP but she talked to him about the difficulties women had in getting to and being in such positions. She was, I think, recently divorced. And, of course, the right-wing press threw the usual, very working-class slurs at her for her appearance and timekeeping that they do with anyone to the left who looks as if they might be popular.

I was a founder member and sat on our local Steering Committee as the party started and developed. The SDP gave me hope for the sort of Social Democracy I believe in. I went to the various 'round the country' conferences and listened to the four of them talk and I wonder now -where are the people like them.

Also a supporter of comprehensive education and good schools for all.

A person with integrity- a shame we don’t have more like her today in government.

RIP Shirley Williams
I enjoyed listening to her on Question Time many years ago.

I think that people across the political spectrum had a great deal of admiration and respect for her.

There were far fewer women in politics when she first won her seat and she was a trailblazer in more ways than one.

A real politician, r.i.p Shirley.

I admired and respected her. Particularly remember her as Minister of Education and Science. Because of her, I joined the newly formed SDP. Wish there were more like her these days.

Thanks for starting the thread Callistemon.

RIP. A woman of principle. A politician who believed in public service-a dying breed.

I found my founder member of SDP certificate when we moved house. I joined because of Shirley Williams.

Shirley Williams was my inspiration to leave Labour and join the newly formed SDP. I met her at a packed meeting which she addressed extempore for an hour. The audience was transfixed. I feel privileged to have met her, and I took my 12-year-old son with me to the meeting - to this day (50 tomorrow) he remembers that she shook hands with him.

I worked next to the Town Hall in Hitchin and remember going out to see the results called in 1964.
We were only part of a small crowd congratulating her. Those were the days when you could get up close to politicians.
A great lady and a sad loss when she left the Labour Party.

I didn't always agree with her politics but I admired her as someone whose views and politics were based on conviction, and not on making herself popular.

I went to see her speak in Edinburgh once and the place was packed out. She was a great speaker but hallyracket, to use a good Scots word. That is, disorganised and didn't care. . Although I'm sure when it came to her politics, she was very organised indeed.

So sorry to hear of her death-RIP.

Sorry, that should be Vera Brittain. Autocorrect ‘corrected’ it.

Varian - I believe it’s the same kind of people. I now believe they don’t want Labour in power. They’re wreckers. They demean others who don’t follow their dogma.

I admired her very much, and her mother Vera Britain, author of Testament of Youth.

I don’t blame her at all for getting the best education she could for her children. We would all like all schools to be equal, but until they are, you do the best you can for your child, surely? It would be irresponsible not to..

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

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.

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 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

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 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?

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.

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 ?