Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
British Labour MEP who achieved the largest majority in Europe, former wife of a Labour leader and now a politician in her own right.
On the island
Eight records
Dafydd y Garreg Wen (David of the White Rock)
Disc 2 selected by the castaway at [421].
Love Duet (from Madama Butterfly, Act 1)
Renata Scotto and Carlo Bergonzi
Disc 4 selected by the castaway at [939].
Ode to Joy (from Symphony No. 9 in D minor)
Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus
Disc 5 selected by the castaway at [1234].
Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 77 (third movement)
Disc 7 selected by the castaway at [1707].
Disc 8 selected by the castaway at [1879].
In conversation
Presenter asks
0:55Is it a case of at last, Glenys? I mean, is it something of a relief to have your own political voice?
Ah, yes, I think it has been a pleasure to be able to speak out about things that I care about and to be I mean, it's still a surprise when you said a politician now. I'm still brought up short by the idea that I can be described as one. But I I am enjoying it.
Presenter asks
8:54What did you feel passionate about as a girl?
I think because of where I lived, I lived in Hollyhead and a lot of the people that I knew had travelled wild widely, including my father, who'd been a merchant seaman. … I remember John Cole saying that people who live on the coast have broad horizons. They look out and they they tend to look out beyond the place where they live. … And my father, I remember in nineteen fifty six, the Suez Crisis said to me, This is their canal. You must remember that this belongs to people and this is Africa and it doesn't belong to us. And those kind of things were very formative and important.
Presenter asks
12:31How much did it pain you both, when Neil was leader of the Labour Party, that you were represented as the power behind the throne?
Obviously it all of that was was painful and difficult to take day after day. It was relentless. The description of me as being very manipulative and always undermining Neil, either doing that or developing policies for the Labour Party, all completely untrue. … With Dennis Thatcher and Maggie Thatcher, they did the opposite, of course. It was the hen pecking which was to give her the strength. So we we were in a no-win situation. And it's still the same because when Neil was leader, they said that I was telling him what to do, and now that I'm an MEP, they say he's telling me what to do. So whatever we do, we don't seem to be able to win.
The keepsakes
The book
The Open University Third World Atlas
Open University
I'd like an atlas. I thought the Peter's Projection Atlas, but I've just come across a wonderful third world atlas which the Open University has produced, and it's full of detail, and I shall so enjoy studying all the graphs and the maps and the history that it contains.
The luxury
If I can't have that [cat], then I would like a nice bag with barrier creams and so on, so that when I do re-emerge from this awful castaway existence, then at least I will have protected my skin from the effects of the sun.
Presenter asks
17:04Had you contemplated defeat beforehand during the [1992] campaign, or did it come as a total surprise?
During the last week of the campaign, I went up to Norwich and the constituencies in in that part of the country, and I had a sense then that things were slipping away very badly from us.
Presenter asks
23:52How much of a sense of frustration did you have when the children were small? Did you ever think: 'I could be head of a comprehensive school by now'?
I suppose there were moments when I'd be dishonest if I didn't feel, as any one would, that sometimes you feel very claustrophobic or those hours that you spend at the swings with the children on cold winter afternoons. But on the other hand, the compensations were enormous and I wouldn't change any of it or any of the decisions that I made…
Presenter asks
30:09If Tony and Cherie Blair walk through the door of Number Ten, will you also have an enormous sense, or a small sense, of regret that it wasn't you [and Neil]?
No, I won't, because you have to face up to the reality and we've both done that. And I couldn't be happier that it's Tony Blair. And Cherie he'll be doing that, because I think he's a fine man and a man of great integrity and decency and has all the values that I think are important.
“It is odd, but of course I have been familiar with that kind of setup through Neal, I suppose, but also as part of a team that went out campaigning in elections and so on. I was quite familiar with how things were.”
“I do pinch myself and I I think I have a sense of having to prove myself too, which perhaps others don't have to the same degree as I have.”
“I grieved really and showed what I felt more than more than Neil did. Niels was contained, I think, which perhaps wasn't such a good thing. I felt absolutely desolate… I genuinely was incapable of responding in any other way than to grieve for him and also for the people of of the country, because I have believed very much that they had made a very, very serious mistake.”
“I would absolutely hate it. I don't like being on my own at all. I'd be very, very lonely and I'd be frightened and I'd hate being there in the dark by myself and thinking that I'd never be rescued. I would really hate it.”