Now, if you were a smart girl, would you be tempted to consider a career in politics?
A chance to shape the way our country is run? After all, we can hardly complain women’s views aren’t heard if we don’t get stuck in at the coal face.
I’m regularly asked why I’m not interested — but, frankly, the prospect of suspending rational thought, behaving like a lemming, and having to take seriously those prats who continually spout party-line twaddle (Ed Miliband, Danny Alexander, Ed Balls, Vince Cable and George Osborne to name but a handful) seems less appealing than having my toenails pulled out or sharing a bedsit with Jeremy Clarkson.
The situation is dire. Currently, the number of female MPs — just one in five — lags way below comparable European countries.
Our supposedly new and ‘transparent’ Government is as full of macho spin-doctors and advisers as Gordon Brown’s, and David Cameron seems unable to attract female voters, because he has dithered over quotas on boards, made cuts to child benefit and legal aid, and has very few women in the Cabinet.
Although Cameron said during his trip to India that Samantha nags him about this lack of girl power, he seems unable to deliver anything more than good intentions.
Now, the Lib Dems are engulfed in a scandal that demonstrates how they may not be exactly pro-women either.
Women like Jo Swinson and Harriet Harman have to 'shut up and fit in'A group of female party activists (how aspiring MPs try to get a foot on the ladder) have come forward alleging they were the subject of unwelcome sexual advances by the party’s former boss, Lord Rennard, dating back to 2004. Lord Rennard denies the allegations.
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But all too often, when a young woman complains of being preyed upon by a powerful man she is not believed. There will be suspicions she was complicit.
Channel Four News has broadcast allegations claiming a female party candidate was ‘intimately groped’ by Rennard in 2004, when he was the party’s chief executive. Two more say the same thing happened in 2007. A female intern says he propositioned her at a party conference and she left in tears.
Ironically, when complaints reached the Chief Whip and Jo Swinson, now Minister for Women and Equalities, nothing was made public and we do not know if any action took place to prevent it happening again.
Politicians move in secretive ways to protect their powerful allies and donors — ways that do not encourage ordinary women (and men) to cause a stink if they want to get a chance at a parliamentary seat. They have to shut up and fit in.
At last, the Lib Dems are holding an independent inquiry into these allegations, but Lord Rennard stood down ‘for health and family’ reasons in 2009, so it’s a bit late in the day.
How can we be sure this kind of thing doesn’t still go on in Westminster; swept under the carpet at the old boys’ club?
I had a good laugh when Harriet Harman appeared on The Andrew Marr Show spouting about plans to make all broadcasters list the number of women aged over 50 who present their programmes.
Harriet leads Labour’s Commission On Older Women (they haven’t bothered to speak to me, I wonder why?) and is determined to ‘name and shame’ broadcasters who refuse to put more older women on screen.
Maybe she should start looking closer to home — down the corridor from her office in Portcullis House. Instead of whingeing about the lack of female perspective in the broadcast media, she should start wondering why there’s a gaping hole in her own backyard.
A Freedom Of Information Request reveals that parliamentary computers accessed hardcore porn sites 2,500 times and gay cruising sites 3,500 times in the year to July 2012. In seven months, there were 52,000 visits to a site for men and women seeking extra-marital sex.
Does this sound like a congenial place for a young and ambitious woman to work? No wonder that the majority of new businesses in the UK are being started by women. Even if it means financial risk and long hours, at least this way they are in charge.
CAN CASHMERE KELLY REALLY HACK IT IN THE DRAGON'S DEN?Judges on Dragons’ Den use their own money to back projects, but how much spare cash does the newest panellist — interior designer Kelly Hoppen — have in the bank?
This summer, Kelly joins the panel for the 11th series of the BBC2 showKelly operates as a sole trader, so there is no need to file accounts at Companies House. She recently said she collects Hermes Birkin bags — prices start at around £6,000 — ‘as an investment’, which gives us a clue to her tastes.
This summer, Kelly joins the panel for the 11th series of the BBC2 show, and says ‘investing my own money in innovative new business is very exciting’.
Her BBC publicity picture (right) shows a very youthful Ms Hoppen. (I can only assume her image was not submitted to the same airbrushing as Sarah Jessica Parker — the actress is barely recognisable on the latest cover of Chinese Harper’s Bazaar.)
Kelly will be a glam addition to the show — although I doubt she speaks the language of popular television. Recently she wrote about future trends in interiors, enthusing about ‘baroque minimalism . . . oversized murals, raw textures . . . and cashmere covers for hot-water bottles.’
Her favourite colours this season are ‘charcoal, mouse (WHAT THE HELL IS MOUSE WHEN IT’S ON YOUR WALL? Mouse fur or mouse droppings?), black, white and grey.
Her signature look is deeply tasteful — imagine two twigs and a pebble sitting on a bit of beige fabric — so I wonder how she’s going to respond to wheelie suitcases for children and hanging chairs made of metal? Her fellow judge, Peter Jones, is worth £357 million, and the hunt is still on for a final panellist.
DOES GERI WANNABE LIKE MEL?In April 2012, there were rumours (not denied by Geri Halliwell) that she was hoping to make a reality series about her daily life, possibly for Sky Living — so what happened?
I can't help feeling that for all the talk of best buddies, there's ruthless competition between these twoGeri-world (my title) still hasn’t popped up in the list of forthcoming attractions on any telly channel.
Another former Spice Girl, Mel B, had a similar show — It’s A Scary World — screened in the U.S. where she now lives, and has just been announced as a panellist on the next series of America’s Got Talent, replacing Sharon Osbourne.
Mel has been a judge on The X Factor over here, as well as in the U.S. and Australia, and said she’s keen to make a second Scary series.
I can’t help feeling that for all the talk of best buddies, there’s ruthless competition between these two.
Geri’s telly appearances haven’t been totally successful — there was a risible documentary in 1999, where she hung out with George Michael — and in 2010 she put in a short stint as a guest judge on The X Factor, but her comments were not well received.
Pete Waterman, who appeared on Popstars: The Rivals with Geri in 2002 (she apparently insisted her dog was included in the panel), said: ‘She has lost all touch with reality.’
Geri recently provided the voice for a character on a new Disney children’s TV show and is planning to release a solo album this year, but since the Spice Girls reunion tour is not happening, she must be hoping her dream of starring in her own show becomes a reality soon.
