While under way, someone well placed in the Labour Party, from outside Tyneside, urged me to avoid any dealings with the person called Mo, because she was thought to be a CIA agent.I did not believe this libel, and my antagonism towards its subject turned eventually into a long friendship Mo's death last week hit not just me, but the whole family. My children will remember her as a kindly, tolerant lady living with her artist husband in a converted farmhouse in Kent, where children were allowed to run around at will and play with a high-spirited dog named Jack.But the tributes to her that have poured in during the last two days, rightly emphasising her friendly charm and popularity, have obscured the fact she collected enemies throughout her career. She is at peace now."A private family funeral will be held next week, with no senior politicians invited - averting the risk of the controversy that surrounded Mr Blair's decision not to attend the funeral of Robin Cook. But later "she was so weak it took nearly half an hour to get her upstairs", Mr Norton said.Hours after her death, early on Friday, Tony Blair phoned Jon Norton from his foreign holiday to thank him for caring for her. "He was generous and said it would be understandable if I felt a sense of relief," Mr Norton said "He was absolutely right She could get so angry and frustrated. "We had talked about the possibility of her dying and we always believed in euthanasia," Mr Norton said.Towards the end of her life, she needed a Zimmer frame and was losing her memory.
On the night before the fall, she was joking about a new wheelchair, saying that she was going to get a motorised version so that she could terrorise pedestrians in Sittingbourne High Street. Two years ago, she made a living will asking that her life should not be artificially prolonged. "She had got up, fallen and hit her head on the corner of the bed It would have knocked out anyone I went to help and she was rigid, staring at the ceiling. I tried to bring her round but there was nothing I could do." He emphasised that there had been no recurrence of cancer and she had not suffered a stroke, but he was bitter that the couple had been kept in the dark about the dementia and other side-effects of radiotherapy.Mo Mowlam was diagnosed as suffering from a brain tumour only weeks before Labour's election victory in 1997, but according to Mr Norton she was told then that she had a chance of living to be 80. Mo Mowlam died from side effects of the radiotherapy that had kept her alive for eight years, according to her husband, Jon Norton. The former Northern Ireland secretary had a heavy fall after a restless night at home three weeks ago, and never recovered.
"I woke up when I heard a terrible scream," Mr Norton told today's Mail on Sunday. Officials advised against it, but to quote the words she used in private, her reaction was "fuck 'em". I can picture her mindset as she entered the jail: "You may be heartless, misogynist murderers who hate the British government, but I will make you respond to me I will, whatever you think." And it worked.. Having fought to prevent Peter Mandelson from succeeding her as Northern Ireland Secretary, she felt sorry for him when he was forced to resign, bought him breakfast at the Savoy and then was deeply put out when he did not ask her about her health or plans, but spent the meal talking about himself.But her finest hour was when the Northern Ireland peace process hit the rocks because unionist gunmen were boycotting it and Mo decided to meet them in the Maze Prison. How do you dislike someone who goes to so much trouble to brighten up a day?The charm, of course, did not always work. Her first attempt failed because Sue recognised her voice, so she hijacked a customerto make the call.
