The Sunday Mirror is standing in the icy water of voter disillusionment with Nulabour governance this morning, fiddling with its flies and trying to hook a Grayling. A knee jerk reaction of partisan politics at its worst; ‘they’ve got our ‘Second Home Secrecy’ Jacquie Smith, on the hook, we’ll have a go at theirs’.
Back in 2001, when he first became an MP, Chris Grayling bought a studio flat in Westminster. I know the block well, I sold my own flat there to Keith Stainton MP many years ago, he bought for the same reason I imagine Grayling did – office accommodation for MP’s in those days was dire and cramped, having a private office within sound of the division bell where you could also sleep after late night sittings, essential. Here’s a suggestion for both parties – buy the entire block and keep it as a hotel for MP’s who need late night accommodation.
Unable to conflate Graylings ‘second home’ with Jacquie Smith’s claim that staying with her sister two or three nights a week constituted her ‘main home’, they have resorted to whining about the possible capital gain to be made on a future sale of this property.
Blair swept to power on a ticket that appealed to many women, that of a ‘third way’, consensus politics. It has since fallen by the wayside. Women are not enamoured of the macho ‘my Dad’s bigger than your Dad’ style of traditional politics, with the contestants spraying testosterone up the door posts as they slug it out, supported by their partisan media.
Women are less concerned with the political process than with the outcome and delivery of policies. Deborah Mattinson, of the political research and consultation firm Opinion Leader Research, says. “It may sound old-fashioned,but I think that women especially are looking for politicians to be public servants.”
While men hurl abuse and scorn on the ‘opposition’, and then vote for the same party time after time, the women’s vote is much more likely to swing towards candidates that offer honesty, dedication and representative government.
I don’t see such a candidate on the horizon, just endless mud slinging that alienates 50% of the voting population.
Wake up boys!