Is Yvette Cooper beyond help?

Dave B

This is a tough one for me. Denis MacShane and Martin Salter both oozed their unsavoury selves onto today's Week in Westminster, so I was already saturated with nausea and loathing before I saw Ms Balls/Cooper's clip. I'll have to give her a passing mark.

salieri

Actually, on that clip she wasn't either condescending or evasive - as she certainly has been in recent memory. This kind of ad hominem (or rather ad feminam) labelling, rather than individually assessed performance, doesn't do the Tories any favours and could and will be applied equally to them. On the other hand contributions should certainly be encouraged to the question: who is the most consistently irritating Nu-lab female of the last decade? Not much to choose, I think, between Mmes. Hewitt, Kelly, Primarolo, Smith, Beckett and Cooper (I exclude Short as Old-lab).

Nicholas

Who is the most consistently irritating Nu-lab female of the last decade? Without a doubt the arrogant, smirking Harriet Harmon who no doubt will be joining the strident screams for all our DNA.

harry

Dawn Primarolo irritates greatly, on the Today programme th eother week she tried arrogant and condescending at first and and when that didn't work and she started sinking fast she resorte, less than seamlessly and certainly unseemly, to supplication and sycophance.

mark

saw the clip - didn't see much of an issue actually - apart from Paxos usual condescending smarm

Chuck Unsworth

Yes, but the best Labour woman MP is probably Dunwoody. The others are truly execrable.

Chuck Unsworth

@ Salieri Why do you believe that ad hominem attacks are the sole province of 'Tories' - as you so condescendingly describe such critics? Personally I make ad hominem attacks on just about anyone. And you assume that I am a Tory? Good Grief.

salieri

Sorry to have given offence, CU. I didn't use 'Tories' in any derogatory sense and I certainly don't regard them as the only labellers. On the contrary, this is a tried, tested and basic Nu-Lab technique. But the post referred to was in much the same generalising vein and seemed unjustified by the evidence. Btw, can't imagine why I overlooked H Harman. Nicholas is right - she wins by a mile.

Max Kaye

No wonder Balls wants to spend more time in the office....

Trumpeter Lanfried

No, no. Patricia Hewitt was worse than any of them. I used to run screaming from the room with my fingers in my ears.

archie wedderspoon

I fear the problem with lady politicians is that they are politicians, just like the blokes.

Fergus Pickering

I think Hazel Blears is rather sweet

Chuck Unsworth

@ Salieri, Absolutely no offence taken. As I said, I'm happy to make ad hominem attacks on anybody... But to get back on topic - to me Cooper seems to be a fourth form boy - both intellectually and physically.