The Spectator

Mo Mowlam, not as useful as she was popular

August 17th, 1998 on how useless Mo Mowlam was in drafting a statement after the Omagh bomb:

“We then had the ludicrous situation of TB having to ask Mo for her fax number, and her shouting out ‘Anyone out there who knows the fax number?’ and then saying the officials had disappeared. It was the Mo manner that was fine when things didn’t matter, but deeply irritating when they did. She sounded more and more exasperated. ‘I’ll say whatever you want, Tony,’ she said, at which point he exploded at her… she then lost the plot completely… Mo was getting near hysterical. TB said to her if you went out and read that statement as you read it to us earlier, you will be dead. I mean dead, totally out of the water. No one would take you seriously. She said: “I’d rather be dead than carrying on like this.

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