Interviews Barbara Castle

In place of strife  

 

 

 

Labour's Red Queen

 It was a brave lass and “have I cried?”

it was the men who drew back.

They knew where their duty lay

but the gritty courage lack,

now there was strife aplenty

for seeds of compromise sowed that day

brought forth their bitter fruits

confrontation, enmity, affray.

Was the way of the coward

to hit and run away?

even if it should be proven

they lived to fight another day,

not now for the victory

that was for another,

but credit Barbara the true principle

for it belongs to her.

Fiery Red Queen

fighter all the way

yet a true Fabian she,

inching us toward a more civilised day.

Albion’s women will say so

for she championed their purse,

hard and bitter the battles she fought

and won for doctor and for nurse.

Yes and real achievements too,

I hope she will not be the last

of the kind of english woman

who moulded but was never cast. 

 

 

On the stump

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/932237.stm

http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/2002/may/04/guardianobituaries.obituaries

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Castle

Defiant

Pragmatist

Barbara Castles pics

Oxford girl

 

Barbara Castle tough negotiator