Two Women of Substance
During the early 1990s, the areas of Dewsbury, and Batley and Spenborough were represented by two MPs from both the Tory and New Labour ranks. One was Tory MP, Elizabeth Peacock and the other was Labour MP, Ann Taylor. For many years, these two formidable political adversaries faithfully served boundary constituencies. Both were always in the public eye and could always command a surfeit of press and media coverage to their cause.
While I liked both as individuals, they were as different as chalk and cheese. Ann seemed prepared to do whatever was required within her party to ‘get on in political life’, while Elizabeth forever displayed that characteristic of ‘political rebel’ who was prepared to buck the party line whenever her conscience stirred her. While both were undoubtedly fearless, I would see Elizabeth as being more fitting to the act of 'base jumper' and Ann as that of 'parachutist'.
Needless to say, the growing unpopularity of the Tory Party eventually led Elizabeth to lose her seat in the House, while the increasing popularity of the New Labour Government would witness the rapid advancement of Ann through a number of important Offices of State before appointing her as the ‘Chairman for the Intelligence and Security Committees.’ In May, 2005, Ann received her ultimate reward for political services rendered when she was elevated to the peerage as Baroness Taylor of Bolton.
Ironically, for Elizabeth, had the nation’s political pendulum swung ‘right’ instead of ‘left’ at a critical juncture in their careers as MPs, I’ve no doubt whatsoever that Elizabeth Peacock (a prior Justice of the Peace for many years and a representative of the heavy woollen industry), would have found herself sitting on a much different ‘Woolsack’ as a future Lord Chancellor or The Speaker of the House of Lords in a Conservatory administration. Elizabeth never did manage to regain her seat, which she’d held on to for 14 years after she lost it in the General Election of April 1997.
However, I was delighted to learn that in May, 2009, Elizabeth was installed as the ‘Master of The Worshipful Company of Woolmen.’ Following in royal footsteps, she became the second woman to hold this title. The first woman ever to hold the title of ‘Master’ had been the Princess Royal in 1994.
During 1990 my very first children’s book, ‘Everyone and Everything’ was published. Proceeds from the sale of the book would be given to ‘Children in Need.’ It, being my very first publication, I naturally wanted it to be a success and if possible, receive lots of local publicity in process. It eventually went on to sell several thousand copies during the first month and raised £10,000 for 'Children in Need.'
I eventually hit upon the idea of getting local and regional celebrities to read my books in Kirklees schools, libraries and hospitals; but instead of having a Children in Need ‘day’ in November, I decided to have a Children in Need ‘month’. Forever one for having an eye open for a publicity opportunity, along with wanting to sell lots of books for the benefit of ‘Children in Need’, I decided that ‘if I created the right type of publicity’ then the press and media would willingly publicise whatever I was doing.
I decided that during every school day in the month of November, 1990, a celebrity reader would be holding a special assembly in one of our Kirklees’ schools each morning and afternoon. All would be reading from my book, ‘Everyone and Everything’.
Having informed every media outlet within a 10-mile radius of Kirklees (including radio and television stations), I then invited particular readers and set up specific situations that would be guaranteed to attract public attention; the type of attention which no respectable photographer or camera man would refuse to snap.
I decided that during every school day in the month of November, 1990, a celebrity reader would be holding a special assembly in one of our Kirklees’ schools each morning and afternoon. All would be reading from my book, ‘Everyone and Everything’.
Having informed every media outlet within a 10-mile radius of Kirklees (including radio and television stations), I then invited particular readers and set up specific situations that would be guaranteed to attract public attention; the type of attention which no respectable photographer or camera man would refuse to snap.
As HM Prison, Armley, Leeds was in the national news that month, I naturally had the new Governor of the Prison as a celebrity reader one morning and the Chief Constable of West Yorkshire in the afternoon. Another morning was filled by television news presenters, Harry Gration and Judith Stamper from BBC Look North, while a news presenter from Yorkshire TV appeared in another school during the afternoon. Likewise, a television weather forecaster from BBC would be a reader another morning while the weather forecaster from the ‘other side’ would provide an afternoon reading. We had the Roman Catholic Bishop of Leeds, David Konstant in a ‘role swap scenario’ with television Gardener Geoffrey Smith one day. Whereas the Bishop did his storytelling in the morning and then ‘planted a commemorative tree’ in the grounds of the school; in the afternoon after his storytelling assembly, Geoffrey was photographed by the press ‘Christening a Dragon’ in another school. A well-known Magician was providing a cooking demonstration to the children’s parents after his reading in one school, while in another Kirklees educational venue, a celebrity cook was ‘pulling rabbits out of a hat’ after he’d completed his assembly reading.
After some persuasion, and in the interest of a worthwhile cause, I eventually managed to persuade both Elizabeth Peacock, MP for Batley and Spenborough and Ann Taylor, MP for Dewsbury, to bury the political hatchet for one morning and to jointly visit the Children’s Ward at Dewsbury Hospital to read from ‘Everyone and Everything’.
Obtaining the cooperation of Elizabeth and Ann helped me enormously to secure identical services from the two opposing MPs in Huddersfield, Barry Sheerman and Graham Riddick. After all, the men of Westminster had no intention of allowing their female political counterparts at the other side of Kirklees to snatch a popularity lead on them by doing something for the benefit of a children’s charity that they were unprepared to do!
Obtaining the cooperation of Elizabeth and Ann helped me enormously to secure identical services from the two opposing MPs in Huddersfield, Barry Sheerman and Graham Riddick. After all, the men of Westminster had no intention of allowing their female political counterparts at the other side of Kirklees to snatch a popularity lead on them by doing something for the benefit of a children’s charity that they were unprepared to do!
By the end of that month, I’d managed to sell 3,000 copies of my book, ‘Everyone and Everything’ through the Kirklees schools we’d attended and raise over £10,000 for the ‘Children in need Appeal’. In the process, I’d also advanced my ability of how to manufacture positive imagery that was highly popular with the public and press.
Despite Saddam Hussain having ordered the invasion of Kuwait on 2nd August 1990, and the massive news coverage putting his face on the front pages of the national press everyday in the ensuing months, by November I was also photographed daily in seven regional newspapers during the entire month; and even the postman started to recognise me by sight. When he started call me 'Bill', I knew I had made it in the locality.
The ending of this campaign for me became the blueprint for many more to follow in my writing career and raising public awareness towards certain issues. The use of local celebrities quickly moved to the use of regional ones; only to be followed in subsequent years by the use of national and international celebrity readers of my books. Just as a sprat can be used to catch a mackerel, then so can a mackerel prove big enough bait to pull in one of the biggest fish in the waters.
I will however, remain indebted to those two MPs, Elizabeth Peacock and Ann Taylor for exercising a temporary truce to political hostilities to read to the children in Dewsbury Hospital in November, 1990. It was these two ladies, who provided me with the initial germ of an idea, which I successfully extended over the years thereafter.
I will however, remain indebted to those two MPs, Elizabeth Peacock and Ann Taylor for exercising a temporary truce to political hostilities to read to the children in Dewsbury Hospital in November, 1990. It was these two ladies, who provided me with the initial germ of an idea, which I successfully extended over the years thereafter.
It is strange how women from opposite poles of political persuasion can influence a simple man, isn’t it? I have often wondered since, if part of their fame rubbed off on me as a consequence of our interaction........... or........... whether or not the illustrious and powerful women the two were to become, was because they read for me! Did I pull them down to earth for a brief moment of their hectic political careers or was their brief contact with little, old me responsible for sending them soaring ever higher into the celebrity stratosphere?
Copyright William Forde March, 2012.
Copyright William Forde March, 2012.
