Gordon pleads for one last chance from the girls

13 June 2009

Melissa Kite says that the PM is ill at ease with female colleagues. No surprise that it was the women — Blears, Flint, Kennedy — who rebelled while the men hid under the table

Remember the Brown Bounce? Yes, there really was one. It was back in September 2007 and Gordon was riding high on a wave of popularity. Honestly, I’m not making this up.

A YouGov poll gave the Prime Minister a commanding 11-point lead over the Tories after his appeal to traditional values at the Labour party conference. What’s more, among women voters the Labour lead was an astonishing 16 per cent — 16 per cent! Mr Brown must have fevered dreams about that now. Wavy graphs with red lines soaring above blue lines must drift past him in his sleep like Homer Simpson dreaming about beer. Acres of coverage were generated in that week about how Gordon’s serious, competent manner was a hit with women. The solid, dependable bank manager in him left us weak at the knees, it was said.

It was a reasonable sort of thesis. After being routinely cheated by the suave, second-hand car salesman Tony, we girls were up for the dull but reliable Gordon in a big way. With his tasteful, sensible wife Sarah in tow — oh, how unlike the frightful Cherie with her freebies and conmen and weird health gurus with crystals — boring Gordon was just what we needed.

But behind the scenes at that conference, women ministers were telling another story. The barely concealed despair of one female member of the government at Brown’s relentlessly dour philosophy on life tumbled out during a private dinner in a conference hotel. ‘Gordon just doesn’t understand why anyone would want to spend money on a handbag,’ she lamented, clutching her designer briefcase protectively close to her chair. While Tony Blair had been in tune with the hopes and dreams of women, and not averse to a bit of retail therapy himself, Gordon was on a mission to crush frivolity. If he could have slapped a tax on Selfridges just for existing, he would have, the minister said.

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 Next page

More articles from: Melissa Kite | this section

Print this article | Email to a friend | Permalink | Comments (5)

Post this entry to: del.icio.us | Digg | Newsvine | NowPublic | Reddit

Post comment

Waving not drowning

June 11th, 2009 12:29pm Report this comment

Ms Kite, you write:

‘It’s disgusting,’ said one. ‘It’s the ghastly macho culture in there. It’s all willy-waving.’

Question: Why do men obsessively 'willy wave'.

Answer: Beause they can.

Maria

June 11th, 2009 1:08pm Report this comment

"the undeniably clever Yvette Cooper". I'm open to being convinced but she has never seemed that way to me. Perhaps it is because she cobbles together all the Labour cliches when she speaks. But how are we to know she is"clever" if she talks like a minimally programmed robot?

Christopher Chantrill

June 11th, 2009 4:01pm Report this comment

I'd say this illustrates the difference between honour in men and honour in women.

Honour in men is staying in line with your brothers, no matter what. Honour in women is chastity, staying pure, doing the right thing, no matter what.