Hannan's Call to Order

By Patrick Hannan BBC Wales's political commentator

I was a bit dubious when I went to see Barbara Castle at her home in Buckinghamshire some years ago.

After all, she was getting on a bit, approaching 80 indeed, and at that stage perhaps she wouldn't have all that much of significance to contribute to the television documentary I was making on Aneurin Bevan.

We stood in the kitchen of her home discussing the programme and her part in it.

She was wearing a nylon housecoat and smoking a cigarette, looking for all the world like a member of the cast of Coronation Street.

Then she brought some dresses to hold against the sofa where she would sit to be interviewed. Would this one do? Or perhaps this one?

Barbara Castle 'talked brilliantly'

Then she left the room with BBC Wales's head of make-up.

Mrs Castle, we had been told, wouldn't be appearing without the full cosmetic works, which we were expected to arrange.

When she reappeared 45 minutes later she looked very much as she had in her political prime, a vigorous, petite redhead, perfectly groomed, with more than a touch of "let me at them" in her manner.

When the lights went on and the camera rolled her eyes sparkled as she talked brilliantly about Bevan, never pausing in the narrative of an anecdote, never having to hesitate in the search for the right word.

Outstanding qualities

You could see what all the fuss was about. She was, frankly, a phenomenon.

Her achievements have been catalogued at length in the obituary columns, her four Cabinet posts and almost 35 years in the House of Commons, not to mention another 10 in the European Parliament.

Until Mrs Thatcher came to lead the Conservatives, she was the most significant woman politician to have emerged in Britain.

But to my mind what was most striking of all was her absolute refusal, almost to the very last, to be silenced by infirmity or great age.

Her outstanding qualities as a public speaker were long celebrated and even in her last years she turned them effectively on Tony Blair and the government as she campaigned to get a better deal from pensioners.

Baroness Castle's become a pensioner's champion

A colleague and I went to see her at the House of Lords a few weeks ago.

She was now a tiny, very frail old woman but she took us for a drink and talked with some of her old flair about the business of political oratory.

The fact that she was now almost completely blind was a bit of an advantage, she said, because it meant that she wasn't tempted to make notes for her speeches.

She recalled some of the great speakers she had heard.

She quoted them and explained the need to surprise your audience.

A year or two ago, she recalled, she had used the technique at a rally in Trafalgar Square. "We are all criminals," she said on behalf of pensioners.

They waited eagerly to know what she meant. "Our crime is that we have lived too long."

She was impatient at the amount of time she was taking to recover from a fall but, yes, she'd really like to come to Cardiff and take part in a programme about oratory.

The date was set. People clamoured for tickets. At the last moment, though, she wasn't well enough to travel.

It was only a postponement, though, not a cancellation. When she recovered she'd be on her way. You could tell she meant it.

In the end it didn't happen. We have all missed something special.

Patrick Hannan's weekly political programme, Called to Order, is live on Radio Wales, 93-104FM, 882 and 657AM, and DSat channel 867.

You can also listen to BBC Radio Wales live online at http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/live/rwv5.ram.

e-mail: [e-mail]