Sisterly Support For Harperson...

Joan Smith in ‘The Independent’ lays into the political structure in Britain:

Thirty years after Margaret Thatcher became prime minister, the position of women in British politics could hardly be more dire.

Mmm, I was just thinking that myself. Harriet ‘I’m mad as a hatter’ Harman, Jacqui ‘I wasn’t up to the job’ Smith, Caroline ‘Wah! The big boy was mean to me’ Flint, Diane ‘Private education is only bad for you proles!’ Abbott…

No, none of them could hold a candle to Maggie. And…

Oh. I don’t think that’s what she meant:

Only Labour has a woman in one of the very top jobs – Harriet Harman, who was elected deputy leader of the party two years ago – but even she has been denied the deputy prime ministership enjoyed by her predecessor, John Prescott.

Oh, I don’t know, Joan. I think a fair case could be made for arguing that she is just as incoherent and incompetent.

She hasn't shagged any secretaries, though, to the best of my knowledge. Perhaps, like her husband, she sublimates those desires on video? If so, there’s a new film out she might like…

This is a disgrace and a scandal. It should also be a crisis, prompting the country's political leaders to ask themselves hard questions about their prejudices towards women. In that context, Harman's demand that Labour should never revert to a duumvirate seems modest and reasonable.

As modest and reasonable as their author.

Which is to say, not at all…

That won't stop some Labour backbenchers muttering among themselves and making the kind of sneaky comments which will no doubt surface in right-wing journals: women wouldn't need special quotas if they were any bloody good, Harman's equal-opportunity agenda will ruin the economy, and so on.

If you think criticism of Harriet’s monstrous agenda is only to be found in ‘right wing journals’ then you haven’t been reading many left-wing ones.

But look at what she actually said in the interview which has caused such a furore: "I think it's a thoroughly bad thing to have a men-only leadership." So do I. What's controversial about that? I'm not suggesting women should rule the world, just that we should have equal access to the top jobs.

You do have equal access. There is already a woman in that top job.

It's a fair bet that Cameron's first Cabinet won't have a female Chancellor, Foreign or Home Secretary, and Harman herself is an anomaly in a Labour administration which has retreated from the heady days when almost a third of Tony Blair's Cabinet were women.

Ahhh, yes. The so-called ‘Blair Babes’. Whatever happened to them…?

Oh, right. They were mostly useless at their jobs and are either still in relatively minor positions or have left…

With notable exceptions, like Lady Thatcher, the political establishment in this country has always been male-dominated; anyone who challenges it can easily be portrayed as shrill and envious. The argument that something has always been done in a certain way has immense appeal, as the front benches of the three main parties show, unless you happen to be one of the people who lose out because of it.

Who’s losing out because of it, Joan? You?

Go run for MP then…

In the case of British politics, it's undeniable that millions of women are not being properly represented and there could not be a better symbol than the fact that we don't even have equal pay. The percentage goes up and down by a few points year by year, but what doesn't change is that women tend to be paid less than men…

I won’t bother to waste time on the preposterous claim that ‘women are less well paid’ because others have done that so much better, so many times.

Similarly, I won’t bother on the statement that ‘millions of women are not being properly represented’ – mainly because neither are men! In fact, no-one’s being properly represented by this shower.

But Joanie isn’t finished with the shrill hyperbole:

Our leaders should come clean about whether they believe their own rhetoric on gender equality, and accept that they're in danger of being regarded as hypocrites if they don't put it into action.

Harman is absolutely right to say what she did, and millions of women are quietly cheering her on.

Actually, millions of women are getting on with their lives quietly, unaware that Harriet Harman even exists.

And that’s how it should be…