Harriet

“YOU weasel, you weasel..”, I remember former Labour councillor Harriet Garland shouting down a Town Hall corridor at me one Thursday night after something she didn’t like had appeared in the Camden New Journal. She had a grin on her face as well though. She was great at giving you a dressing down, putting you in your place. It was sad news indeed to hear that she had passed away this week.

While her long experience of Camden politics, predates my time reporting up at the Town Hall, I remember her as a councillor who was as serious and resolute, as she was mischievous.  She had no time for the blathering, nonsense speeches that waste so much time at council meetings. I recall her audible sighs in committee rooms when anybody began grandstanding like they were in the House of Commons, even if members of her own party were on their feet. That always made me warm to her.

She was certainly missed in the debating chamber when she stood down from the council in 2006. An obituary informed by people who knew her far better is due to appear in this week’s CNJ.