There are very many reasons to criticise the Labour Party at the moment. The way they fell into George Osborne’s political trap when they should have tied him up in knots is just one. And while I’m at it, John McDonnell, if you’re going to get a bit passive aggressive with people in the Chamber, don’t immediately apologise. Either don’t do it at all, or do it with confidence. His responses to James Cleverly and Lucy Frazer show that he’s far too easy to wind up. You just can’t give that sort of ground. The lack of front bench experience is really showing here.
There is more than enough political carnage in which the right wing press can rub Labour’s nose. It really, really doesn’t need to make a story out of Jeremy Corbyn’s wife, Laura Alvarez, not going to the state banquet for the Chinese President. She has her own life. Why should she be obliged to go to her husband’s work event? It’s not the first time something like this has happened. A couple of years ago, one of the BBC team mentioned in censorious terms that Miriam Gonzalez Durantez had not been at Liberal Democrat conference all week. She’d gone back on Sunday night and only returned for Nick’s speech. Well, blow me down, she actually went to work? What a scandal! I complained to the BBC about that one and got precisely nowhere.
Husbands of female politicians don’t get such grief. Nobody expects them to be paraded around like a trophy. The Telegraph seems to still be living in the 1950s. Time for it to realise that it’s now the 21st century and women lead independent lives that are not focused on their husband’s careers. When they write something like that, they don’t just diminish Laura Alvarez, they diminish the status of all women.
* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings. You can find her on Bluesky at caronmlindsay.bsky.social
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6 Comments
I fully agree.
I hope this starts a trend where the wives of politicians are not dragged along as ‘plus ones’. Either that or they cause consternation and alarm by not acting to role!
> Husbands of female politicians don’t get such grief.
ISTR Denis Thatcher receiving some flak, but otherwise would agree.
A state banquet can hardly be described as just a ‘work event’. It’s an invitation from the sovereign, not an office Christmas do.
@Frank Little I also recall that Mr Yvette Cooper got plenty of grief, but that was all well deserved!
I really wanted McDonnell to do well…. but I’m afraid he made me cringe. What a shame when he could have had such a powerful message. I hope it’s just a blip on the learning curve…. but Caron’s right on the passive aggresive. What compounded my disappointment was that smirking so and so on the Treasury bench. If Osborne becomes the next Tory leader it will be so tempting to vote yes if and when.
Also right on the spouse thing, Caron,
“The Telegraph seems to still be living in the 1950s” . No surprise there then, indeed the Barclay brothers are worthy of study if there are any budding Ph.D. psychology students at uni looking for a subject.
“The Telegraph seems to still be living in the 1950s.” when did it get that far it still thinks we have an empire and that we rule the seas.