I never met Mo Mowlam.
(The Plain People of Hackney fall down clutching their sides and crying 'Say it ain't so, Someone Roz Never Met? Incredible.')
However, I was at a book launch for the reissue of John Carvel's 'Livingstone's London' as a campaign biography for Livingstone's first run for Mayor. Mowlam was there, with a mischievous smirk on her face, and called all the journos present into a corner and said that she had been pressured by Number Ten to stand against Ken as official Labour candidate, and was not going to, so there, yarboosucks.
At that moment, I got a thorough insight into why everyone who dealt with her loved her - she had charm and political courage and a fair measure of sheer bloody cheek.
On other matters, is anyone surprised at the somewhat feeble response to the killing of Menezes by the Police Complaints Authority? Ever since his days as Director of Liberty, John Wadham has been far too close to the Blair project for entire objectivity.
