Glenda Jackson

• I CAMPAIGNED for Glenda Jackson in 1992 and met her many times but I will always remember the first and last time we met.

The first time was when boundary changes brought part of Brent into her constituency, and she came to meet my then boss, the leader of Brent Council.

Glenda admonished me for reading The Guardian, which had endorsed the Lib Dems who were propping up David Cameron’s Tory government.

I asked her why I shouldn’t read it and in her best Elizabeth I voice, Glenda said: “It is a Quisling rag, supporting a Vichy government.”

I subsequently followed her advice and I no longer buy The Guardian, especially since it has driven out feminist writers like Suzanne Moore and Hadley Freeman.

The last time I saw Glenda was at Frank Dobson’s funeral when, resplendent in red, she read lines from Cymbeline in that powerful and moving way that only a great actor could do.

Glenda never forgot her working-class roots and that was reflected in her politics. Cultural and political life are the worse for her passing.

CLLR RICHARD COTTON
Labour, Camden Town ward