Gordon pleads for one last chance from the girls

10 June 2009

/article_images/articledir_7378/3689098/1_listing.jpg

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

Let’s be clear. No leader, however confident or macho, should upset the girls. There is much evidence that when a party chief is marked out for death, it is the women who wield the knife. In 2003, the entire might of the Conservative party was despairing of Iain Duncan Smith, but it was a quiet, pencil-slim diary secretary called Vanessa Gearson who made the fatal allegations, since disproved, about money he paid his wife Betsy to work in his office, triggering a furore which ended in the Quiet Man being noisily slaughtered.

In 2006 the Liberal Democrats were panic-stricken at Charles Kennedy’s deterioration, but while many senior figures briefed behind the scenes, it was the 4ft 10in Sarah Teather who organised a letter urging him to go. It is a tabloid headline cliché, but the assassins so often wear high heels. Like Judith beheading Holofernes, they do not seem to mind rolling their sleeves up and getting stuck in.

Fast-forward to 2009, and the Labour party is vibrating with impatience at the performance of Gordon Brown. Off the record, there is savage briefing by male Labour MPs. But who should go over the top? Why, none other than Jacqui Smith and the little chipmunk lady, Hazel Blears.

For a second it looks as though a few of the blokes might join in. James Purnell sticks his head above the parapet and growls a bit but no one dare follow. David Miliband and Alan Johnson yelp helplessly and the revolt looks dead. Then the raven-haired Xena warrior princess of the party, Caroline Flint, hurtles across the battlefield with a spear aimed at Gordon’s head.

Previous page 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.