The great British battle-axe: Sharp and very good at her job

Apr 25 2008 by Valerie Hill, Liverpool Daily Post

IS THE great British battle-axe yet another entity practically extinct in this land, which was once famous for being filled with independent-minded individuals and eccentrics?

It started with Boadicea and appears to have ended with the sad loss of the formidable Gwyneth Dunwoody, MP for Crewe, right, who died, aged 77, last week. Political and social commentators were hard-pressed to find any up-and-coming battle-axes to fill her stiletto boots.

Ageing airy-Blairy babes of the snooty sort such as Harriet Harman, Patricia Hewitt and Hazel Blears were all dismissed with almost as much contempt as Gwyneth herself meted out to them.

Indeed, it was only a few weeks ago that she reduced Ms Blears to tears over allowing seven Cheshire councils to be axed. Gwyneth proved yet again that she was a far more effective one-woman opposition to new Labour than all the Tories put together.

Branded a piratical galleon whose sails were big print dresses, and described as having Rumpole of the Bailey’s fashion sense, would be career suicide to most politicians in this telegenic age.

Instead, as Labour aristocracy (both her parents served at Westminster), she reigned unopposed over her realm of the Commons Transport Committee, which was widely regarded as a model of select committee scrutiny.

Without a doubt she was a chairman, and regarded as nonsensical political correctness renaming this title chairwoman or chair.

Constituents and commuters could sleep soundly in their beds knowing that at least one powerful person cared about their train journeys to work. She excelled at putting smug Railtrack bosses on the rack and giving slimy private contractors a red-hot roasting.

The Transport Department’s time-serving Civil Service mandarins and time-wasting government ministers were given the merciless pummelling they richly deserved.

Local Merseyside and Cheshire contenders like Edwina Currie and Christine Hamilton would like to be battle-axes, but are too light-weight.

They also display a non-battle- axe tendency of rather liking men (Margaret Thatcher was let down by the same characteristic).

True battle-axes must either dislike men or impatiently tolerate them on the basis that being utterly hopeless means they will be dismissed ASAP.

We really have to look to telly to reassure ourselves, although, there again, they appear to be a dying breed. Chief comedy battle- axe of my youth, the late great Peggy Mount, is long gone, as is Ena Sharples; one wonders how much mileage is left in Norah Batty.

In spite of playing countless matrons and headteachers, the wonderful Hattie Jacques was far too sensuous – and also clearly liked men.

So what is a battle-axe? A battle is an armed conflict and an axe is a tool for chopping wood. The two words were linked in the early 1900s and soon the phrase battle-axe, applying to a fierce-acting woman, became popular.

In recent years, many women have protested about the use of the word battle-axe. They say it is sexist. A nickname that insults someone of the opposite sex is regarded as sexist.

Others, including Gwyneth, believe that calling a woman a battle-axe is not derogatory.