First Lady attacked over meeting

VICKY WARD

At the start of the President's European tour, Hillary Clinton told the 22 distinguished women who had coffee with her in the US embassy in London on Wednesday morning that the only way to deal with criticism is not to take it personally. "Women spend too much time worrying about other people's approval and not whether or not they approve of themselves," she said. Hours later she needed to put those words into practice.

Mrs Clinton's coffee morning was not deemed a success either by most of the women "delegates" chosen to attend it or the right-wing British press who gave it almost as much critical press attention as her husband's speech on the Irish peace process to Westminster. The Daily Mail, which even devoted a leader to the subject, are indignant at the selection of what they see as an unrepresentative bunch of lefties to exchange views on women's issues.

The guests, who included the Independent's associate editor Polly Toynbee, Gillian Shephard, the Secretary of State for Education and Employment, Baroness Blackstone, Labour's foreign affairs spokeswoman in the Lords, and Georgina Henry, deputy editor of the Guardian, were unsure as to who had actually chosen them, or indeed why. Most were rung by embassy staff only the night before.

Some, like Lola Bubbosh, the deputy editor of the Literary Review, thought there must be some mistake when they were told that Mrs Clinton wanted to canvas the opinions of British women on British women's issues - Ms Bubbosh is American.

There was no written format to the meeting, and no obvious chair. After Mrs Clinton had met everybody individually - she was introduced to Mrs Shephard first and, after enquiring what she did, commented "that must be an important job" - Baroness Blackstone kicked off the discussion. Mrs Clinton said little throughout, "but", says one source, "she nodded a lot".

Not all of Mrs Clinton's guests saw the point, however. "Most meetings end up with some agenda of some kind, some purpose," said one unattributably. "But none of us knew where this discussion was going."

A spokesman for Mrs Clinton said the First Lady "does this every time she goes abroad and there is time".