Editing Clare Short (section)

===Secretary of State for International Development===
Following the [[1997 United Kingdom general election|1997 general election]], the Overseas Development Administration was given full departmental status as the [[Department for International Development]], with Short as the first [[Cabinet of the United Kingdom|cabinet-level]] Secretary of State for International Development.<ref name="auto1"/> She retained this post throughout the first term of the Labour government, and beyond the [[2001 United Kingdom general election|2001 general election]] into the second.

On her appointment to the DfID, journalists asked Short whether she would be "good" (in other words, not cause embarrassment to the government). She replied "I'm going to try to be good but I can't help it, I have to be me."<ref name="STimes">Iain Martin, Maurice Chittenden, "Scots to fore as gentleman Tony completes his team," ''The Sunday Times'' (London); 4 May 1997.</ref> A few months later, the island of [[Montserrat]] (one of the United Kingdom's few remaining overseas territories) was devastated by a volcanic eruption which rendered half the island uninhabitable; when the 4,500 islanders asked for more help from the DfID, Short was reported to have remarked "they will be asking for golden elephants next" and refused to visit the island. This remark caused great offence to the Montserratians and others; Labour MP [[Bernie Grant]] said that "She sounds like a mouthpiece for an old nineteenth century colonial and Conservative government."<ref name="Hibbs">Jon Hibbs, "[https://archive.today/20021128201131/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/htmlContent.jhtml?html=/archive/1997/08/25/wmon25.html Short calls for an end to Montserrat aid row]", ''Daily Telegraph'', 25 August 1997</ref>

====Land reform in Zimbabwe====
On 6 November 1997, Short sent a letter to [[Kumbirai Kangai]], Minister of Agriculture of [[Zimbabwe]], in which she stated that "we do not accept that Britain has a special responsibility to meet the costs of land purchase in Zimbabwe." She went on to write "We are a new government from diverse backgrounds, without links to former colonial interests. My own origins are Irish and, as you know, we were colonised, not colonisers." In the same letter she did, however, offer qualified support for land reform: "We do recognise the very real issues you face over land reform... we would be prepared to support a programme of land reform that was part of a poverty eradication strategy, but not on any other basis." This letter caused a rift with the Zimbabwean government, which asserted that the [[Lancaster House Agreement]] of 1979 had contained a pledge from the United Kingdom government to assist in [[Land reform in Zimbabwe|land reform]].<ref name="McGreal">Chris McGreal, "Blair's worse than the Tories, says Mugabe," ''Mail and Guardian'' (Johannesburg), 22 December 1997.</ref>

====Position on the arms trade====
In December 1997, Short signed the UK into the Ottawa Convention, banning the production, handling and use of [[anti-personnel mines]].<ref name="Thomas">Mark Thomas, ''As used on the famous Nelson Mendela; Underground adventures in the arms & torture trade'', Ebury Press, 2006.</ref>

In 2001, she wrote that the "ready availability of small arms has a direct and negative impact upon levels of crime and conflict in developing countries. We (the DFID) are supporting various peace building and disarmament initiatives."<ref name="UK Parliament, 2001">"[https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200001/cmhansrd/vo010207/text/10207w23.htm UK Parliament]". from the UK Parliament.</ref> The following year, she claimed that Britain was "committed to combating small arms availability and misuse."<ref name="UK Parliament, 2002">"[http://www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/pa/cm200102/cmhansrd/vo020422/text/20422w07 UK Parliament]{{dead link|date=May 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}" from the UK Parliament.</ref>

====Kosovo bombing====
Short approved of the 1999 [[NATO bombing of the Radio Television of Serbia headquarters|NATO bombing of the headquarters of Serbian state television]], in which sixteen media workers were killed and sixteen others wounded, because the station was, as she put it, "a source of propaganda".<ref>{{Cite web |title= Nato defends TV bombing |url= http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/326653.stm |website= BBC News |date= 23 April 1999 |access-date= 11 July 2016 }}</ref>

====Resignation====
On 9 March 2003, Short repeatedly called [[Tony Blair]] "reckless" in a BBC radio interview<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/the_westminster_hour/2845125.stm Clare Short's "reckless" interview] from the [[BBC]].</ref> and threatened to resign from the Cabinet in the event of the UK Government going to war with [[Iraq]] without a clear mandate from the United Nations. This looked set to be a reprise of her previous resignation as party spokesperson during the [[Gulf War]] of 1991 as a protest against the Labour Party's stance, although in 1999 she had publicly supported the [[NATO]] attack on Serbia. However, on 18 March she announced that she would remain in the Cabinet and support the government's resolution in the House of Commons.

Short remained in the Cabinet for two months following her decision to back the [[2003 Iraq War]]. She resigned on 12 May. In her resignation statement in the House of Commons the following day she stated: "In both the run-up to the war and now, I think the UK is making grave errors in providing cover for the US mistakes rather than helping an old friend... American power alone cannot make America safe...  But undermining international law and the authority of the UN creates the risk of instability, bitterness and growing terrorism that will threaten the future for all of us."<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/resignation-statement-errors-secrecy-and-control-freakery-clare-short-s-parting-shot-to-blair-538454.html|title=Resignation statement: Errors, secrecy and control freakery - Clare Short's parting shot to Blair|date=13 May 2003|work=The Independent |location=UK|access-date=16 October 2022}}</ref>

Her later, Conservative, successor in the post, [[Andrew Mitchell]], described her as "a brilliant development secretary".<ref name="Bloomfield">{{cite web |last1=Bloomfield |first1=Steve |title=The war on aid: the hidden battle inside Priti Patel's own department |url=https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/the-war-on-aid-the-hidden-battle-inside-priti-patels-own-department |access-date=16 June 2020}}</ref>