We have to say now we think the character of the party has changed so far it will take something very exceptional, something really out of the ordinary line to make us be convinced there's a chance of winning back the party.

One is that we were both too caught up in what we were respectively doing—we didn't spend all that much time together; the other to be completely honest is that I'm fairly unjudgmental and I found Bernard's capacity for pretty sharp putting-down of people he thought were stupid unacceptable. For 17 years the couple lived in a large house in Kensington with the literary agent Hilary Rubinstein and his wife. In the media

Williams has been a fixture of the British media for decades and is indeed one of the most quotable politicians of the past 50 years.

Williams also serves as Professor Emerita of Electoral Politics at the John F. In 2001–2004 Shirley Williams served as Leader of the Liberal Democrats in the House of Lords and served as Adviser on Nuclear Proliferation to Prime Minister Gordon Brown from 2007 to 2010.