Perhaps, as the cynics will assume, it was just a way of making her feel better. But then again, perhaps Mo Mowlam may be assuming a role that plays to her strengths.It was a central tenet of Blairism, first that most of Thatcher's economic restructuring was necessary but had left an unacceptable social devastation in its wake; and secondly that repairing the damage required a degree of interdepartmental co-operation that the British system was notoriously bad at. This week's announcement that Mowlam had been formally appointed by Blair to help to ensure delivery of the policies of the Social Exclusion Unit made few headlines. It is that Mo Mowlam does not have much of a role, that Downing Street, and perhaps the Treasury even more so, remain the real enforcers of domestic policy, and that she can only become more discontented and, worse, fatally semi-detached.Maybe There remains, however, a rather different possibility.

But she would hardly have been human if her homesickness for Belfast had not been compounded by the fact that it had been not on her watch, but on Peter Mandelson's, that the big breakthrough to devolved government was finally made. Or that Mandelson was widely credited with repairing government relations with the Unionists and successfully urging David Trimble to take the terms of the Mitchell deal to his party's ruling council.At this point our ruthless old friend, Westminster conventional wisdom, kicks in. And as the supposed proponent of - to use that toe-curling phrase, "joined-up government" - the Cabinet Office, with its manifold responsibilities, was not itself that joined-up.As it happened, Mo Mowlam had been graceful beyond the call of duty after the reshuffle, travelling back with her successor to Belfast immediately after Mandelson's appointment to show him around and help him to settle in. For a politician branded by her informality, it was quite a bastion of formality. It was, rather, the sheer contrast of the Cabinet Office with life in Northern Ireland.It didn't have a clear mission in the way the NIO had It didn't legislate It was about systems as much as people. Or that it had a series of dispiriting, low-profile functions such as "better government".

Or that the Cabinet Office had become a bit of an unglamorous repository for problems that had already proved difficult to resolve - such as policy towards GM foods. It wasn't so much that a lot of the inter-departmental fixing was already being done by a more junior minister under her - Tony Blair's close and trusted friend, the affable and sharp-minded Lord Falconer. The reports that she hated her new job - she was forced to take the unusual step of writing to her civil servants to deny this - may have been exaggerated But there was more than a grain of truth to them. She was forced to accept a job that she had, by all accounts, scorned back in July: the nebulous, ill-defined co-ordination post at the Cabinet Office that had previously been filled by Jack Cunningham.It was not an easy translation. In the October reshuffle - after a party conference in which she was acclaimed with somewhat less tumult than she had been a year earlier - she was in a weaker position. But her resistance expended quite a lot of her admittedly large share of that mystical commodity, personal political capital. The threat that she might resign from the Cabinet if she were forced out of the Northern Ireland office was a potent one which, if carried out, would have had a seriously destabilising effect.

The depth of the animosity between David Trimble and the Northern Ireland Secretary became a matter of public comment, not least by Trimble himself. There were dark, destructive murmurs that Mowlam's mastery of detail did not match the warmth and approachability of her personality. And it became known that Tony Blair had intended to shift her in that messy July reshuffle, ideally so she could run for the London mayoralty, but that she had refused unless she were moved to a big departmental job of a sort that was, apparently, unavailable. She was able to do so, of course, partly because she was so popular. Her courage in overcoming illness had become a symbol of hope for the success of the peace process And then it started to go slightly wrong First the peace process seemed to become becalmed. Second in national popularity to Tony Blair, she had been acclaimed, with a gushing display of mass emotion, at the Labour Party conference two months earlier. THIS YEAR may not have been exactly an annus horribilis for Mo Mowlam, but it hasn't been all that mirabilis either Consider her position this time last year. Her brave journey to face down the loyalist prisoners in the Maze is an indelible memory of 1998.

His is a voice that must be added to supporting repeal of Section 28 and the introduction of partnership rights for unmarried couples, including the right of same- sex partners to inherit pensions.Even the thought of a candidate standing in London who was defending Section 28 would have been a total anomaly.. The mayor should also look into ways of making sure that those organisations signing contracts with the GLA pursue similar policies.Although the mayor will not have direct powers over health, the office must be used to improve co-operation with HIV/Aids organisations and local health authorities to co-ordinate treatment and support for those with HIV.The mayor of London will be the politician with the largest individual mandate of any politician in the United Kingdom. Indeed it will be the largest such employer in London, except for the National Health Service.The mayor must ensure comprehensive protection against discrimination and harassment for these staff, including that on the grounds of sexual orientation, gender identity and HIV status. The mayor must use these powers to insist on cracking down on homophobic hate crimes and the harassment of lesbians and gay men.The Greater London Authority will be responsible not only for its own staff but also - indirectly, through Transport for London, the fire authority and the Metropolitan Police - for thousands of employees. The Greater London Authority must listen to, consult and work with lesbian and gay Londoners.The mayor will be able to appoint members of the new Metropolitan Police Authority, including its chair. In such a system, the winner must gain more than 50 per cent of the vote.