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Jane Schopflin |
Long-serving politician who went into battle for the less fortunate
JANE Schopflin, Lib Dem councillor for Fortune Green, has died aged 70.
Cllr Schopflin will be remembered for her dedication to tackling local issues, her availability at any time of the day or night and her patience in helping solve problems.
Her motivation to stand as a councillor came from a belief in social justice and her understanding of the intricate machinations of local government.
Jane was an only child. Her family were Glaswegians: her father a Communist who worked in the Clydeside shipyards, her mother a seamstress.
Despite coming from a poor background, Jane won a scholarship to a grammar school and was encouraged by her teachers to stay on past the usual school-leaving age of 15.
Jane won a place at Glasgow University, where she threw herself into student politics, joining the debating society and the Labour students’ group, where she was a contemporary of the late John Smith, who went on to become Labour leader, and the late Donald Dewar, First Minister of the new Scottish Parliament in 1999.
After graduation, Jane worked as a journalist on the Glasgow Herald and as a researcher for the Labour Party.
Later, she moved to BBC Radio, where she became an award-winning news producer, thriving in what was then seen as a man’s domain. She was on duty when the news of President John F Kennedy’s assassination came over the wires and she had to hastily prepare the subsequent news bulletins.
With her Hungarian-born husband George, whom she had first met at Glasgow University, she moved in 1967 to Chester Road in Highgate Newtown, where they had three children, Julia, Katharine and Sophie. The couple divorced in the late 1970s.
An active Labour Party member, canvassing during elections, she became disillusioned with the party in the early 1980s and left to join the newly formed Social Democrats.
When they formed an alliance with the Liberals, she stood as a candidate in the Fortune Green ward of West Hampstead, winning a seat in 1990 and serving as a councillor for the remaining 17 years of her life.
Her daughter Julia said: “She loved being a councillor for the opportunities it gave her to help those less fortunate than herself. She would go into battle for her constituents. She would take great pleasure if she had helped to rehouse someone and was devastated if she was unable to stop someone being evicted.”
When first elected, she and Councillor Flick Rea were the only Lib Dems in the chamber. She would joke that while Flick was the leader, she was happy with her roles as deputy leader and chief whip.
Her political beliefs were partly informed by her journalism. She developed an interest in housing issues and this brought her work with specialist publications such as New Society magazine, Local Government News and pressure group and social research body the Joseph Rowntree Trust.
She also worked for homeless charity Shelter where she chaired the research committee, as a consultant on homelessness for the Audit Commission and for the Housing Corporation, as well as being an advisor to the Greater London Council.
She worked hard as a councillor, never missing her surgeries until she was too ill to attend them.
Her daughter Julia added: “Being a working mother was not always easy. She encountered difficulties in the days before the Sex Discrimination Act. There was a particularly unsympathetic boss whose name she encouraged us to use as a swear word when we were little.”
Away from work, Jane enjoyed walking and gardening, and was a regular visitor to Kew Gardens throughout the year. She was a confirmed bibliophile, with a soft spot for detective novels as well as more serious social history. She also loved to travel. Last year, despite a long illness, she spent time exploring Mallorca and in Cornwall.
She is survived by daughters Julia, Katharine and Sophie, and grandchildren Zoe and Max.
The funeral was at Golders Green Crematorium last Wednesday.
Councillor Flick Rea writes:
“Jane was a tower of strength, always fighting for the things she believed in. She was a housing expert in her own right. We used to say she had more knowledge and experience in her little finger than all of Camden’s housing department put together.
“She never gave up on what seemed like the most hopeless case and we always sought her advice when faced with issues involving private landlords, threatened evictions or people living in sub-standard conditions.
“She was wise and witty, compassionate and caring, a good friend. Her fellow councillors for Fortune Green, Russell Eagling and I, along with all her colleagues, will miss her dreadfully. Typically, she asked for donations to be sent in her memory to Shelter.” |
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