Gwyneth Dunwoody unmasked

Parliament is bereaved.

No more will we hear the beautifully expressive voice of Gwyneth Dunwoody, authoritative, acerbic, impassioned or persuasive. She employed all the skills of her past training as an actress to dominate the backbench and select committee stages.

Thoughts go to moments that I shared with her. She was waspish and wise at a meal I enjoyed with her and two other colleagues a month ago. There was no hint or sign of any illness. Her spirits were deflated by recent events but her barbed intelligence, as always, enlivened the evening.

She delighted in favourite stories.  At the time of railway privatisation, the Transport Select Committee asked Richard Branson how he would make his trains better than British Rail. He answered that he would encourage his drivers to drive faster. ‘To overtake the train in front, perhaps?’ Gwyneth innocently inquired. Only rail-ignorant Branson could not see the joke.

She recalled Mitterand’s thanks to the John Major Government at the opening of the Channel Tunnel. He praised the might of French Engineering that allowed Eurostar to speed from Paris to Calais. Then he thanked the British for thoughtfully allowing passengers plenty of time to admire the beauty of the English countryside.

She was irritated and often contemptuous of the easy rise to cabinet of new women MPs. She thought they had it easy compared with her generation. One of the few repeatable comments is her claim that Pat Hewitt’s career faltered because ‘she spent too much time with her voice coach.’

Her own  fall from the frontbench involved two incidents. One was bad publicity arising out of a £20,000 Commons refreshment bill. I understand she was a victim of her own generosity. MPs have to sign cheques for corporate hospitality for constituency companies, which is later reimbursed. Someone let her down.

At the Bournemouth Labour Party conference in 1985 there was a demonstration by animal rights protesters against her financial link with the fur trade. She was dropped from an opposition frontbench role. For years she assumed that I did not accompany her on a Transport Committee visit to Norway because she had said that she would wear her furs. It was a long time before I could correct her and explain my absence was unconnected with animal welfare. I saw little point in trying to find facts in Northern Norway in December when that had only a few hours of daylight.

On a flight from New York to Seattle in the early nineties, I sat next to Gwyneth in the forward seats of the plane. Some of our more excitable colleagues were sitting in the back. Before the plane took off, Gwyneth asked to see the Chief Steward. She introduced me as Doctor Flynn and herself as Professor Dunwoody. She pointed out two of our colleagues and explained “ Dr Flynn and I are carrying out an experiment on what we call in the United Kingdom ‘Care in the Community’. Those two people are from an institution and we are monitoring their behaviour on this experimental trip. Don’t worry they are not dangerous as long as they do not consume alcohol.’ The Chief Steward was aghast. ‘Give them drinks by all means’ Gwyneth urged ‘but no alcohol.’ She had an air of sublime authority that convinced the crew. Halfway into the journey we heard a British accent behind us complain ‘What’s this horse piss they’re serving us?’

Some of the tributes paid to her today are from those who went to great lengths to frustrate her work.  It was parliament that restored her Committee Chair that the whips took away. It was her great friend the previous Speaker Betty Boothroyd who ensured she always had prime positions in debates and questions. It was her committee colleagues who supported her loyally.

She was the last of a generation of women MPs of exceptional talent who succeeded mainly because they were tougher than their male counterparts. Gwyneth was generously endowed with strength, guile, humour, courage and integrity. 

Rest in Peace, Comrade.

Comments

[Mike Homfray]

Something to do with their adherence to socialist values?

[Paul Flynn]

Thanks very much Hilda.

That fills any important gap in the story of her life. She became dis-illusioned with the more strident form of feminism that she thought was damaging in parliament. She had a reputation among women MPs of all parties as a friendly, kind mother superior who was generous with her advice.

There is a great difference between the generation of Jo Richardson, Barbara Castle, Audrey Wise, Gwyneth and the new crop of women MPs.

[hilda smith]

In all the varied praise for Gwyneth Dunwoody I have heard no one comment on her work on behalf of women. I clearly remember her regularly attending meetings during the early 1970’s of the National Joint Committee of Working Women (NJCWM), who had worked assiduously for the rights of women at work and in wider society since 1915.

How supportive and helpful she was. With her common sense approach to the problems of working women, especially when taking forward such developments as the Equal Pay Act and the Equal Opportunities Act. She along with Jo Richardson gave strong support to the work NJCWM that has been largely ignored, but at the time was crucial and should not be forgotten as a valued aspect of her contribution to the Labour Movement.

[Gwyn the bus man]

er, just to wander into a by-way; I share 98% of my DNA with a chimp? Well, yes, and I also share 70% of my DNA with a banana.

The key point is not the 98/ 70 we share, but the 2/ 30 that sets us apart!

Anyway, to turn to the subject.

I knew Gwyneth Dunwoody for 34 years; I campaigned for her in Oct 74, and stood against her in 1992. She had virtues, and she had vices; strengths and weaknesses. Like all of us. Humans do.

[paulflynn]

Lively debates on this site are very welcome. but mindless abuse is not. One comment has been deleted because it's fall below the cretin level. We have our standards.

[Patrick]

Hi Chas you big tough steak eating hunter gatherer!If speech was "entirely about brain size and power" then no doubt Whales would be contributing on here. We have no idea how intelligent the king of mammals actually is. Humans are so stupid that in less than several millennia we have just about made the planet uninhabitable.
Bye the way unlike you i dont have a little pussy cat as i prefer wildlife.
Patrick

[Patrick]

Is Chas a chimp?
As you have yet to realise chas that you are an animal,let me enlighten you. You share at least 98% of your genes(maybe 100 in your case) with chimps. Your ability to speak evolved entirely unconnected with brain power.Modern paleantologists suggest a link between development of speech with enlarged primate group sizes. When human group sizes became to large to individually groom each other then speech evolved.
People like you that think you are not part of the animal world are usually the most disconnected ,unfortunate , and repugnent of our primate species.
Patrick

[Chas]

Fantastic post from Chris - "If animals could speak..."

Chris: if animals could speak they wouldn't be animals, now, would they? They would be people. And we wouldn't eat them or turn them into shoes. But the thing about animals, Chris, since you obviously can't see this for yourself, is that animals can't speak, because they can't think. And because they can't think they don't have responsibilities. And because they don't have responsibilities they don't have rights. We have responsibilities to them instead, Chris, but we treat them differently from people and we eat them and turn them in shoes. Do you understand that?

That's the difference between animals and people, and it's a very good idea to remember that, otherwise your morals get very confused and you give all your money to donkey sanctuaries while people starve in Africa and China commits human rights abuses.

Here endeth the lesson.

[Paul Flynn]

No GaryJ, it's nothing to do with politics. All speakers have their favorites. Of the three in my time in parliament, the best was Labour's Betty Boothroyd and the worst was the Tory Wetherill. He lack a sense of humour and invited unnecessary confrontation. The next Speaker was tipped to be Derek Conway. That was a narrow escape. The likely one is Tory George Young. He'll be good.

[GaryJ]

Sounds wrong that being a friend of the Speaker gets you preferential treatment. Time for a non-Labour speaker perhaps?

[paulflynn]

Thank you Mrs Hyde Hartley. She was often a difficult companion but always needle sharp with her barbs and always loyal to her own lights.I had a running row with her for 20 years about animal welfare, but i prized her company and she will be greatly missed

[paulflynn]

Thanks for your comments Jean Shaw, but the situation is not as bleak as you say.

there were 139 Labour MPs and 16 Tories who defied the strongest three line whip on the most important vote of recent year. They voted against sending British troops to join Bush's war in Iraq.

Philip Cowley, the academic who studies these things,says that this is the most rebellious set of backbenchers for a generation. There are between 40 to 60 on the Labour side.

[jean shaw]

Without doubt she will be missed , she was willing to stand upto the whips /ministers . She came to Parliament when it was believed that the purpose of being an MP was to offer service to your Community and country. Compare that to the vast majority of todays MPs who believe that it the country which is there to provide to their needs. There are probably about a dozen MPs who really have the strength of character to stand up for their views instead of crumbling into a heap when called into the Chief Whips/headmaster's study.

[Mrs.Josephine Hyde-Hartley]

I will miss watching Miss Dunwoody on BBC Parliament.She obviously knew her role as a Parliamentarian and Chairwoman inside out and commanded the total respect of those she was grilling.What a character!

[There is nothing wrong with country sports]

Get stuffed 'Chris'.

She might have been a raving fruitcake about most issues but she was right about freedom in the countryside.

[Paul Flynn]

Thanks Chris. You are right of course. I hinted in my comments that there was friction between us on animal welfare issues. I did not know she backed the clownish Middles Way Group.

but she was still a formidable parliamentarian, and a great backbencher.

[Chris]

Have to fundamentally disagree with you about Ms Dunwoody Paul.

She was not only an active supporter of vile bloodsports (sitting on the so called 'Middle Way Group') but also a supporter of the fur industry who defended leg hold traps amongst other barbarisms. She was for several years a Parliamentary representative for the fur industry.
Her bully tactics which are being bizarrely celebrated were simply an extension of the cruel mindset she had.
If animals could speak they would not be joining in the chorus of 'wasn't she wonderful.'