Political Props
In my humble opinion, political spouses (normally women) should be seen and not heard - not because I've anything against the individuals concerned - but because no one ever elected these people to say a goddam thing.
So I think it would be better for all everybody if the wives and husbands of political leaders took a leaf out of Denis Thatcher's book - who trundled along dutifully in the wake of his wife (Margaret) - before disappearing at the earliest opportunity for a well deserved gin and tonic.
Sadly, the fashion these days if for wives and husbands to be used as political props - which is bad news for everyone except the parliamentary sketchwriters who have a field day - poking fun at the insanity of it all.
A case in point is the following piece by Quientin Letts which appeared in The Mail newspaper the other day - I have to admit that laughed out loud at the reference to Sarah Brown following Gordon around 'like a psychiatric nurse' and the later description of Ed Miliband as the 'Rubik's Cube Kid'.
Now politics is a rough old business and can sometimes be cruel - but to my mind politicians who use their spouses in this way, as political props - deserve to reap what they sow.
As Miliband wheels out his wife on the hustings, Quentin Lett asks: Can cool Justine can ever make Ed look less of a dweeb?
By Quentin Letts
..His personal poll ratings plunging like an auk, Ed Miliband reached for the emergency card: play the wife! The Labour leader hit the local election campaign trail this week with his missus Justine in tow. Jolly tidy she looked, too.
You will remember that Gordon Brown resorted to the same thing. His wife Sarah used to follow him round like a psychiatric nurse and even acted as his warm-up act at Labour conferences. Look how well that worked.
Samantha Cameron has been known to add her swan-necked presence to the occasional political photo-call. But she normally keeps her trap shut. Mrs Miliband was used in a far more actively political way.
This was frontline campaign stuff, with much flesh-pressing and grinning-and-gripping in front of the very media her husband likes to attack. The 42-year-old mother of two was hauled around Nottingham almost as though she, not her hapless hubby, was the one standing for election.
The event was a trip to her old school in Nottingham and she was paraded in front of ITV News’s cameras. The whole thing was about Justine, though that did not stop Labour spin doctors telling the media to go easy on her because she was ‘not a political figure’.
Mrs Miliband made a rare appearance on the campaign trail, Labour admitted that the outing broke new ground for its leading lady and that we will be seeing more of her as a campaign player.
The whole thing was about Justine. It was she who took the questions with an easy smile and the grace of a seasoned pro'.
The couple, who have two children, tied the knot in May 2011, eight months after he became Labour leader.
Children and staff lined up on both sides to shake hands with this glamorous visitor and that rather strange man beside her. Labour admitted that the outing broke new ground for its leading lady and that we will be seeing more of her as a campaign player. Think Cherie Blair with turbo boosters (but better ankles).
When Justine and Edward walked down a corridor, Justine was the one leading the way while he trundled at her side, trouserlegs flapping and his mouth sagging to one side.
When they sat in front of pupils from West Bridgford School, it was Justine who cast a superior glance – a look of ownership, almost pitying – over her husband as he burbled away, all splotty consonants and bulgy eyes. Far from humanising him, she made him look even less normal!
Miriam Gonzalez Clegg, wife of the deputy prime minister, has a snorting disregard for political campaigning.
She it was who led the small talk with teachers and reminisced about the time she jumped out of a window so that the headmaster would not spot that she was wearing lipstick and an illicit purple coat.
For this trip she was dressed in a smart coat, quite long, crushed raspberry in colour. A flash of floral top. The glint of earrings.
We were invited to picture teenage Justine as a wild child, often in detention. Mr Miliband was asked if he would have fancied his chances with her in those days, had they come across one another.
‘I don’t think she would have had any time for me,’ he honked. ‘She was obviously too cool.’ Too cool for the Rubik’s Cube Kid (for that, indeed, was the sorry preoccupation of the teenage Miliband)? Surely not!
What a lovely posh voice our Justine has. As she reminisced with her old history teacher Ailish D’Arcy (who remembered her as a star pupil – she went to Cambridge afterwards), she sounded almost like the Duchess of Cambridge. Wonderfully la-di-dah alongside glottal-stoppy Ed.
Mrs Miliband was a child actor and would shudder to speak as indistinctly as her mockneyed mate.
Feminist Justine has a day job in the law. She is a barrister in London, where she sails under the name ‘Justine Thornton’, thank you. She is said to be good at it and earns great drums of oats.
Labour MPs who have frequently criticised Mr Cameron for ‘using’ the serene (and mainly silent) Samantha may need to swallow their reservations. Mrs Miliband is plainly being groomed as a major prop for her husband. Can she make him look less of a dweeb?
By way of contrast, Miriam Gonzalez Clegg, wife of the deputy prime minister, has a snorting disregard for political campaigning and generally limits her appearances to one or two turns at party conferences. Classy.
