They still recount, with awe, her decision to go into the Maze to talk to loyalist and republican prisoners at the moment when the peace process seemed on the brink of derailment. But Mowlam's is not a style that works all the time. At Westminster she has critics and not only among those who are jealous of her success. For some, like chancellor Gordon Brown, with whom she fell out when on his treasury team in the early 90s, she is simply too up-front, too open. For an academic like Karen Ross, who researches the way women politicians are treated in the media, it is a criticism echoed in other organisations.
All research shows that people who work with women like their open, consensual approach.
But their seniors often see it as weak. In the next 10 days, the Mowlam style will be a decisive factor in her future. It is typical of her that she has already admitted discussing a move with Blair. The answer will show whether Blair believes it is possible to be an effective politician without being a suit and whether the critics are right to claim that the post-modernist boys in the Policy Unit cannot cope with any perspective but their own.