20 minutes with Cherie Blair

Platform’s Robyn Slingsby speaks to Cherie Blair, an OU honorary graduate, about the importance of higher education, juggling commitments, her passion for human rights and how life begins at 40.

The Open University is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year. What do you think the future holds for the OU?
You know what they say, that life begins at 40! I think there’s a huge demand for higher education and given the costs of getting a degree from a traditional university I think the OU has got a great future ahead of it because it provides the flexibility for people to fit their desire for higher education around their need to make a living.

You are no stranger to juggling commitments, being a barrister, charity campaigner, after dinner speak and the mother of four children. Many OU students study while bringing up families and working full time in stressful jobs. Do you have any advice for them?
I don’t think OU students need any advice from me. I was involved in some of the OU’s original law courses and gave out degrees to some of the first graduates and I heard accounts of what they had to do and some of the excuses they has as to why assignments weren’t handed in on time, including a pilot in the Gulf who couldn’t file essay on time and model on a photo shoot. OU students epitomise what is meant by work-life balance, trying to do a job, keep a normal family life and improve themselves at the same time. I take my hat off to all of them. When I was a young lawyer I taught at what’s now the University of Westminster. I was doing my bar final myself but my students were all holding down a full time job and I always felt humbled by what they were doing and they inspired me to work hard myself. Studying is a real discipline and quite a lonely thing, working on your own. It’s something I’m quite familiar with as self employed barrister. We live in 24 hour world and it’s how we divide those hours between our commitments.

How important do you think education is, particularly in the current economic climate when people are perhaps less inclined to invest in courses and qualifications. Is it a good time to upskill?
Absolutely, in a time of economic turmoil, it’s always challenge but it’s an opportunity too, an opportunity to think about what direction we want to take and if we can do something to upskill. I think in the 21st century we can’t compete with the likes of China etc on cheaper labour, we have to compete on a smarter, more imaginative, more adaptive level.

In an interview with the BBC you claimed your husband Tony Blair won a place in Chambers over you because he’s a man. Do you still think women have it harder in the workplace, competing with men for the top jobs?
It’s true that my pupil master said to me, as did others at that time, that I was the only woman and was therefore at a disadvantage and that was the way of the world then, but I don’t think it’s like that now. It’s harder for women when they start having families but you can’t see having children as purely a woman’s issue, it’s also an issue for men as they are part of family life and they want to be involved in their children’s lives too. As women we have a challenge in the workplace but men can find it difficult too as it can be seen as strange for them to be the one bringing up a family. As much as we want acceptance in the workplace, we need to accept men in the home too.

Much of your work has been protecting human rights and liberties. How important is this to you and do you feel freer to speak out in public now Tony Blair is no longer Prime Minister and involved in humans rights legislation?
From early age I felt very strongly about justice and equality. At 16 I joined the Labour Party, at 18 I joined the LSE as it had courses on civil rights and employment and that’s the area I chose to practice in. I am lucky to have more international viewpoint on this which is a privilege having spent 10 years at Number 10. My book is called Speaking for Myself,  as for 13 years Tony was leader of the Labour Party and everything was subjugated to the desire that the Labour message got over and my personal views and opinions were irrelevant in that. It’s now possible to take up issues I’m interested in without everyone thinking it’s government policy and, for me, that’s a liberation.

If you could study any OU course, what would you choose?
I have many passions so that’s a very difficult question for me. I love history, I adore reading so literature would be a good one and I am interested in philosophy. Oh, and I’m always saying to my children that theology is a very interesting subject.

And if you could choose a different career?
That’s really difficult because I can’t imagine myself being anything other than a lawyer.

Posted: 2009