The Major Years

I've made a few mistakes in my time but compare to this lot I'm Mother Theresa  I don't lie to the electorate on daily basis abs disgrace It's bad enough NO football No work But these parasites patting themselves on the back everyday is shocking

Quoted from mimma

Don't think Blair ditched her, she was suffering from cancer, so my personal view is he tried to ease the pressure she was under.

I remember one story about Mo. She had had a hard day and was knackered.  Ian Paisley started with one of his infamous loud rants. She took off her wig, looked him in the eye, and uttered these immortal words;  "intercourse off Ian!!".

She was a truly remarkable lady.

Oh he ditched her alright. The final rounds of negotiations were by Blair, Campbell and Jonathon Powell with Mandelson brought in for the last bits. Blair wanted to get Mowlam out because she was too cosy with the Sinn Fein side. There were several who thought she was OK on the broad principles but had poor grasp of detail and details were all important.

Quoted from TheRonRaffertyFanClub

Oh he ditched her alright. The final rounds of negotiations were by Blair, Campbell and Jonathon Powell with Mandelson brought in for the last bits. Blair wanted to get Mowlam out because she was too cosy with the Sinn Fein side. There were several who thought she was OK on the broad principles but had poor grasp of detail and details were all important.

Or maybe she was just too ill to attend!

It seems you are using this to try to discredit Blair when there is nothing in it.

Quoted from mimma

Or maybe she was just too ill to attend!

It seems you are using this to try to discredit Blair when there is nothing in it.

Not really, I can't discredit him any more than he has himself!

There are several accreditations to the business. This is one from the Guardian about the myths of Mo Mowlam.

A parallel myth is that her(Mowlam's)combined style and conviction drove the grim-faced leaders of Northern Ireland's political parties into signing the Belfast agreement. Yet if you speak to any of the main players engaged in marathon discussions, many of them lasting well into the early hours, at Castle buildings in Stormont, they will tell you Mowlam was a secondary player. Once Blair and his entourage arrived from London, Mowlam and her Northern Ireland office team were swept aside. The prime minister even brought over his own typing pool instead of using Mowlam's staff.

Moreover, it was Blair's own forceful and persuasive personality that cajoled David Trimble, then the leader of mainstream unionism, into signing the Good Friday deal. Privately, Irish government officials have made it clear that without Blair's continued presence towards the end of those historic talks the agreement would never have been established.


This is backed up by John Rentour's book on the Blair years.

Thank you for this information.  I have not seen this before.

The one thing it does tell us is that Blair would get things over the line if he needed to.

Quoted from mimma

Thank you for this information.  I have not seen this before.

The one thing it does tell us is that Blair would get things over the line if he needed to.

You mean like an illegal war?

Quoted from mimma

Thank you for this information.  I have not seen this before.

The one thing it does tell us is that Blair would get things over the line if he needed to.

Yes. Of course what he wanted to get over the line was not always what other people thought should be over the line!

Blair is an opportunist and he would cheerfully take advantage of what anyone else had done and make it look like his own work. Mowlam was not the genius that some have painted her perhaps out of sympathy but she was not a mug and had done some groundwork in NI. The same applies to Major. A lot of the early work for the Good Friday Agreement was done by him, much of the contact being unofficial. In that quote I gave you, the key words I think are "Blair swept in", that was his style.