IF The Northern Echo were to advocate a statue to commemorate the life and works of every member of the New Labour Government to have been returned by a North-East constituency, the region would quickly become cluttered.

The Blair obelisk, the Milburn memorial, the Mandelson monument, the Armstrong acknowledgement... Plus plaques for Stephen Byers and Nick Brown, and possibly something grander for David Miliband in South Shields as his career unfolds.

In general, though, and if selected and erected sparingly, public memorials are a good thing. Increasingly, our town centres look the same - the same shops, the same glass-and-concrete architecture, even the same litter as the ubiquitous takeaway cartons blow in the breeze.

Public memorials at least provide a sense of place and a source of local pride. They are a reminder of values, and a pointer to future generations of what this generation has admired and even cherished.

Some form of permanent memorial to Mo Mowlam in Redcar is entirely appropriate. It should be viewed as non-political, because it was more Mo's character that people related to than her specific views. They liked her openness, her honesty and brutal directness. They liked her indomitable spirit - gender, political persuasion, religious divide and even ill health could not stand in the way of her desire to get the job done.

This spirit brought people together. It's surprising how many members and voters of other political parties have been genuinely touched by her early departure.

Redcar is also surprising itself in the amount of affection it finds it has for the woman who was its MP from 1987 to 2001.

The problem is the nature of the memorial. In the 21st century, we don't do statues of leaders on horseback with a clatter of medals pinned to their chest and pompous expressions on their faces.

And in any case, informal Mo would have detested the idea of something as stuffy and immovable as stone.

Any memorial has to be imaginative. It has to be more about capturing her spirit than her physical likeness.

Teesside artist Steve Tomlinson's suggestion of a circular seating area - embodying Mo's spirit of bringing people together - is a very interesting starting point, and we look forward to seeing other ideas develop.