Everyone remembers Mondeo Man – but what of Worcester Woman?

Richard Robinson‘s Speech Bubble

Being asked to list New Labour’s most salient achievements you might well select from some well versed themes on a menu listing the successful introduction of the minimum wage, massive reduction in youth unemployment, establishment of Sure Start Centres, Pension Credit, peace in Northern Ireland and so on.

Yet in winning that famous general election victory in 1997 it is sometimes forgotten how spectacularly well Tony Blair and New Labour secured the women’s vote, in itself a significant feat.

It should be no surprise, then, that Gordon Brown should appear on BBC Radio 4 Woman’s Hour yesterday morning seven weeks before the expected date of the election in May.

It should be highlighted, though, that Brown was the last of the main party leaders to take part in the series “Winning Women’s Votes”. Whilst he of all the party leaders acutely realises that losing the woman’s vote will cost him victory at the election, what was suprising yesterday as he conversed with Jane Garvey was his very relaxed and calm tone and demeanour; he laughed, and spoke in quiet – almost a whisper at times. Throughout the inteview he remained supremely confident and perhaps the most striking feature was that he appeared actually to enjoy the conversation – not usually something you would think of Gordon when before the media.

His increasingly confident repertoire meant he was able to confidently talk openly about a wide range of subjects ranging from the expected question surrounding why he did the Piers Morgan interview at the time he did, to the role Sarah played in “changing” his image, the British Airways Strike, references to Andrew Rawnsley’s remarks about him “bullying” staff, and the state of British economy.

When bluntly asked whether Sarah Brown’s position at a PR company had helped change his image, you could almost hear him smiling as he laughed “no, it’s marriage that changed me”.

Thankfully, Garvey did not venture with Gordon into the subject of why the First Lady of France should attend a state visit without wearing a bra – that was saved for later in the same programme. Had she raised the topic, though, I got the feeling Gordon would have felt no embarrassment; he may even have found something humorous to add.

Brown confessed to being confident around women. No doubt he will need to be, as Garvey reminded him that – with the economy currently £177.6 million worth of national debt – women will feel the pain of recession just as much as their male counterparts; to which Brown reminded his audience of the strength of Labour’s record on equalities, and especially for women; the minimum wage; and changes in pension age.

There were no questions about the PM’s favourite biscuits (and therefore nothing for the press to further misconstrue on that front), yet he did admit to a penchant for bananas – though he wouldn’t say exactly “how many” a day he consumed.

One banana skin that was avoided was the thorny subject of “All Women Shortlists”, a question that could potentially have caused Brown some embarrassment, bearing in mind the growing unease and controversy within parts of the Labour Party about the increasing number of parliamentary selections which discriminate against men.

You might hear more about the phenomen of the “Worcester woman and 1997″ between now and May 6th. Gordon will need the vote of every women in Worcester and beyond in order to help secure another Labour term.

Photo: BBC Radio 4, Flickr

Related posts:

1. This latest round of “hound the woman!” is pissing men off just as much
2. Gordon: taking women’s rights seriously