WOMEN OF THE WORLD - META RAMSAY

Hello again Kim, it is my pleasure – we always have such a fabulous time chatting! I was an only child and, until I was 16, the only grandchild and niece of that generation in my family. It meant that I was the focus of attention of every adult member of the family, which was marvellous.

In 1945, a couple of months before WWII ended, the first election for a decade took place. My mother’s younger brother was campaigning for a Labour seat and, as I was the only child, I was taken along to all of his speeches. My uncle was an impressive orator and became my biggest inspiration. I was nine years old and I remember tremendous excitement as Labour won with a landslide victory. It felt like a new dawn and everything felt positive.

At school I was an active member of the Debating Society and received a prize for public speaking. I had a natural confidence with people and I think it was these things combined that led me to the career that followed.

I was at Glasgow University in the ‘60s with many people who ended up being successful politicians. John Smith (with whom I worked 30 years later) was there with me. We were in ‘Debaters’ together - it was an extraordinary time. I was unaware quite how extraordinary it all was – I thought it was normal and that everyone was having this type of experience at university. Most of my Debater friends and David Steel (who was at Edinburgh University at the time) went into the House of Commons straight from university. It wasn’t a great time for them as, being Labour, they were not in power for 18 years. I however, took a different path.

Indeed. It has been reported that your path took you into the SIS and I appreciate that anyone who has held such a role cannot talk publicly about it. - Reports state that Meta was the SIS Head of Station in Helsinki at the time of the successful exfiltration of the former KGB Colonel Oleg Gordievsky and one of only two women who rose to a senior rank in MI6 during the 1970s and 1980s. - In 1994 she was reported to have been short-listed for the role of Head of MI6 but that she never believed the job would be filled by a woman and, indeed, it was Sir David Spedding who took over the role. Reports say that Meta retired from the diplomatic service in 1994. - She then turned to full-time politics, becoming a foreign policy adviser to John Smith and then special adviser to Jack Cunningham, Shadow Secretary of State for Trade and Industry in the mid-90s.

Having retired from my first career, I decided to really focus on politics in 1992 when my friend John Smith – who was Leader of the Labour Party at the time - asked me to be his foreign policy adviser. A couple of years later, he died suddenly of a heart attack the morning after a big fundraising event I had also attended at the Park Lane Hotel. It was a very difficult and sad time.

I then became special adviser to Jack Cunningham, Shadow Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, and was made a life peer in 1996, which was a real honour.

It really is wonderful to have such a close-knit group of female colleagues and friends at the House of Lords. I have Baroness friends who were elected and entered the Lords when they were very much the minority. I think it was quite a hard time for those few being such a small group, but exciting for them too. When I arrived in 1996, I made some wonderful female friends across the parties, who I am still close to today. What binds us together is being women – party allegiance comes very much second. Just under a third of members of the House of Lords are women today.

Thank you, Kim, that’s kind of you to say. I do enjoy colour and l love clothes for the confidence the right ones can bring. I prefer pieces that are simple and that don’t date. I’m quite a conservative (with a little ‘c’!) dresser, but not dowdy – slightly classic, in a good way, I hope. It’s also important that my work outfits are comfortable and don’t distract me. I have to say that women’s clothes designed by women really are the best – it makes sense! That is one of the reasons I think the Winser London collections are so good – for both professional and non-working women.

From the current collection, it has to be the Boyfriend Jumper which I have five or six of in different colours – purple, light pink, ivory, light blue... I like to wear one on colder days with a matching Winser London knitted piece such as a coatigan in exactly the same colour. It then looks like a modern twinset and has a slimming and lengthening effect that’s rather good!  On warmer days I will team a Boyfriend Jumper with one of your beautiful silk blouses in the same colour, which gives a very sophisticated look.

An outstanding favourite Winser piece of mine is the beautiful Eau de Nil leather coat, which I don’t think you do any more, but it always attracts admiring attention when I wear it ... I love it!

I am not athletic, but I want to be fit and healthy and well. I do Pilates, which is good for strength and flexibility. Back home in Adelaide I live by the ocean , so I walk on the beach and swim regularly. In London, I walk everywhere. During lockdown I discovered the joy of jigsaws and audio books - I really enjoy listening to those while I do a puzzle or walk, especially if it’s someone reading their own autobiography. I also read a lot of women’s fiction and am not averse to a gripping page-turner.

Being Prime Minister tested my ability to manage sleep, eat well and decompress. I’ve never been one of those that can function on four hours sleep. Now I don’t work to the relentless pressure of being PM, I am more able to control rest and recuperation time, but as I often do speaking engagements I can’t fall into my natural rhythm of early nights and early mornings.

Nelson Mandela was the hero of my youth, and I cut political teeth and awareness of social injustice in the anti-Apartheid era, so he would top of my invite list. I have had the wonderful experience of meeting and spending time with some of the remarkable women who have forged the way in recent history, such as Madeleine Albright, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Hillary Clinton but of course they’d be at my table. Barack and Michelle Obama, too. And I’d love to have some of the great writers that I’ve enjoyed throughout my life, including Jane Austen and Virginia Woolf.

Red wine - anything from Australia, obviously, but South Australia in particular. I enjoy a Pinot Noir, rather than a heavy red. And a plate of cheese and crackers and great conversation.