Word up for curb easing lights show
Dramatic breakaway that shook Labour Just two Gang of Four
SPELLBINDING Royal Oak
LOCKDOWN easing spelt a red-letter day for city landmarks and the popular board classic Scrabble.
Uplifting words such as freedom, relief and hope – formed with Scrabble-style letter tiles – have been projected on to buildings.
Among the London venues were Brick Lane market, the Shard and a spot near to Harrods. Smaller sites included the Royal Oak pub in Bethnal Green, East London.
A poll of 2,000 adults picked the most uplifting words and the ones linked with lockdown easing.
The projections took place ahead of today’s National Scrabble Day.
A Scrabble spokesman said: “The words we choose matter. They have power to uplift, encourage and strengthen us.”
At the Palace in 2017
TENACIOUS, caring, inspirational and respected, Shirley Williams was one of the Gang of Four who walked away from Labour in 1981 to launch the Social Democratic Party.
Helping to blaze a trail for female politicians, she became a minister in Harold Wilson’s government in 1967 and was Education Secretary from 1976 to 1979.
But just two years later she was one of the big-name quartet who quit Labour in protest at the party’s shift to the left under new leader Michael Foot.
She entered the Lords in 1993 as Baroness Williams of Crosby and became Lib Dem leader in the upper chamber.
Baroness Williams was a journalist before launching her political career, starting out on the Daily Mirror in the 1950s. She died yesterday aged 90.
Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey said: “This is heartbreaking for me and our whole Liberal Democrat family.
“Shirley has been an inspiration to millions, a Liberal lion and a true trailblazer. I feel privileged to have known her. I will miss her terribly...
“Political life will be poorer without her intellect, her wisdom and her generosity.
“Shirley had a limitless empathy; she connected with people, cared about their lives.” Lord Owen, who was one of the Gang of Four, said: “She was an extremely warm person, and friendly.
“When she was talking to somebody, she was directly involved with them.
“There was no looking over the shoulder– and they felt a very direct relationship. I admired it, and I didn’t altogether have it myself.”
Ex-Lib Dem leader Tim Farron said: “They say you should never meet your heroes – Shirley Williams was an exception. She was joyful, inspiring, gentle, decent, tough, brave and determined.
“She [had] gracious humility and star quality all at the same time. A lovely friend and an inspiring mentor.”
Former Prime Minister Tony Blair said: “She was one of the greatest social democrats of the last century, an immense figure of progressive politics...
“For many of us in the Labour Party, even after she left, she remained a source of inspiration and someone to look up to and admire – warm, generous, humane and uplifting. She will be greatly missed.”
She was born Shirley Catlin in 1930 into a privileged household in Chelsea, West London, with two live-in servants. Her mum was Vera Brittain, a prominent
TONY BLAIR’S TRIBUTE TO SHIRLEY WILLIAMS
Baroness Williams in 2012 feminist and author of Testament of Youth, which was turned into a TV series in 1979 and a movie in 2014.
Shirley’s dad, Sir George Catlin, a teacher of political science and unsuccessful Labour candidate, used to take her to Labour meetings in a pram.
She was educated in the US, where she was sent during the Second World War, then St Paul’s Girls’ School in West London, when she returned to Britain.
She was Education Secretary
Before going to Oxford University, she had a series of jobs including as a land girl, waitress and chambermaid.
While a 17-year-old waitress in Northumberland, she organised a strike and won higher wages for fellow staff.
In 1950 she became the first woman to chair the Oxford University Labour Club.
She also won a scholarship for postgraduate study at Columbia University, New York. When she returned to the UK,
NEW PARTY Owen, left, Rodgers, Williams and Jenkins in 1981
She was warm, generous, humane & uplifting
she worked as a journalist. Her first step in parliamentary politics was a failed attempt to win Harwich in Essex for Labour at a by-election in 1954, and again at the general election in 1955.
This was also the year that, aged 25, she married philosopher Bernard Williams. They had a daughter, Becky.
After time spent teaching in Africa and another failed bid to become an MP, Williams was eventually elected Labour
SHIRLEY Williams’ death leaves only two of the Gang of Four, David Owen and Bill Rodgers.
Roy Jenkins, who died in 2003 aged 82, was Chancellor from 1967 to 1970 and Home Secretary from 1974 to 1976.
He spent 34 years in the
Commons, as a Labour MP from 1948 to 1977 and as an SDP MP from 1982 to 1987.
Between his time on the green benches he spent four years in Brussels as President of the European Commission.
Bill Rodgers, 92, now Baron