Thoughts on politics and life from a liberal perspective

Thursday 3 December 2009

Sally Bercow is only human like the rest of us

The wife of the Speaker, Sally Bercow has given a fairly candid interview where she talks about some of the things she did when she was younger. Get ready to be completely and utterly shocked:


  • Apparently, when she was younger, she used to drink a bit too much. It started when she was a student and continued until her early 30s when she decided it was causing problems for her and she stopped.
  • She also, occasionally used to go home with men she had met in bars. That's right! A woman, used to indulge in casual sex. What's worse is that she found it quite exciting and does not appear to be utterly ashamed of her behaviour.
  • She has political opinions! I know! A Labour politician, a Labour politician has views about David Cameron and that his party is for the privileged few!

[/SARCASM]

Unsurprisingly Nadine "I block people who disagree with me on Twiter" Dorries has waded in:

We desperately need to restore both authority and respect to Parliament. What this interview has done is remove any painstaking progress Parliament has made and reduced the Speaker and his office to that of a laughing stock. How can we ask the people to trust us, when the man who holds us to account has such poor judgment that he allowed his wife to give such an appalling self obsessed interview?

So apparently the fact that the wife of the Speaker has the temerity to have had a life when she was a bit younger has removed "painstaking progress" from parliament. WTF!? I know Nadine rarely engages brain before mouth but this is complete nonsense. There is a real vein of misogyny running through Dorries' comments here. A man has "allowed" his wife to do an interview. I'm sure in many other contexts the idea of a man trying to shut up a woman would appal her but in this case because she hates John Bercow he and his wife are fair game for comments like this.

Sally Bercow can do what she likes. She does not need permission from her husband. She is an active Labour politician and nothing I have seen from her past is any different to the experiences of millions of people in this country.

I for one am grateful that she feels able to speak out like this and I very much hope it does not affect her political career one iota.

15 comments:

Jennie Rigg said...

It'll be hilarious what the tabloids will make of me if I ever get elected...

Unknown said...

I've been seeing the odd reference to Sally on Twitter and have only just got round to seeing what the fuss was about.

I've always said that if Nick Clegg's unguarded comment to Piers Morgan had been made by a woman, the consequences would have been absolutely vicious.

Nadine really is turning herself into a laughing stock.

I hope, by the way, that Jennie does get elected cos she'd be a darned good MP who understands real life.

Mark Wadsworth said...

Good for Mrs B, she 'fesses up to perfectly normal behaviour for somebody her age and is strikingly good looking.

Her politics are shite, but hey, you can't have everything ...

Anonymous said...

I find this story incredible.

This sort of interview should have people up and down the country applauding the fact that real people are becoming MPs.

I'm sure getting hammered every night and having one night stands would be inadvisable for an MP. But this was in her student days and as a young(er) woman.

And I say that as someone who didn't spend their student days drinking myself into a stupor and sleeping around!

Anonymous said...

Although saying that, it is very easy to say
"If he can't control his wife how can he control a gaggle of MPs!!"

[winky emoticon thingy]

Hythlodaeus said...

AH, but of course, they should have covered all this up until the Sun dug up some lover of Mrs Bercow's. This would be a step forward for the transparency and integrit...hey...wait a second...

Don't Call Me Dave said...

The votes for UKIP will be piling up in Buckingham now!

Jimmy said...

"I've looked through the write-up of the interview, and I didn't see anything that suggested the interview was held in the apartment. Is this even true?"

I noticed that. The photo is clearly taken somewhere on the South Bank (Oxo perhaps).

Of course everyone has skeletons in their closet but perhaps with hindsight she should have kept quiet about joining the conservative party.

Cardinal Richelieu's mole said...

Would Dorris's point be that the information about the Bercow spouse not being new, nor especially interesting, then one may reasonably conclude that she was only interviewed because of her husband's job: that being so, it is something of a pity that attention is deflected from his efforts, such as they are, to improve the image of parliamentarians by her allegedly self-indulgent media courting? Would it not be fair enough for any person in public life to exercise some sort of control over what is essentially exploitation of their position by a spouse/partner when it comes to advertising through the infotainment industry?

Thomas said...

"We desperately need to restore both authority and respect to Parliament."

An excellent to excuse to kick Nadine Dorries out at the next election. Not that you need an excuse...she really is the Sarah Palin of British politics.

Richard said...

You've got to remember that Dorries is not the sharpest tool in the box. Her bizarre comment about "We desperately need to restore both authority and respect to Parliament" did make me chuckle though. I cannot imagine what twisted logic can equate the youthful indiscretions of an MP's spouse to the recent MPs' expenses revelations.

Watch her here to see SNP's Nicola Sturgeon running rings round her and be reminded that Nadine doesn't think that Trident is a weapon of mass destruction... priceless.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icxJggfW0T0

If this is the calibre of a typical Tory MP then Gawd help us!

Richard Gadsden said...

Jennie, I'd love to see you as an MP, mostly because you'd be superb, but yes, partly just to watch the tabloids try to deal with your sex life.

Can we get Jen Yockney elected at the same time? Ze'd confuse the tabs even more.

Anonymous said...

Evening Standard said this evening that the interview was not held in Parliament.

"Ms Dorries inaccurately claimed the interview took place in Speaker's House, a venue meant to be above party politics. In fact it was conducted away from the parliamentary estate."

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23779527-revealed-the-speakers-guide-to-luring-drunken-girls-into-bed.do

David Evershed said...

Sally Bercow was explaining waht her husband's political views were.

As Speaker he should be neutral and should not use his wife to promote his political views eg on the EU.

No doubt her husband would like it to be known that he is sceptical about the EU to try to prevent votes going to UKIP.

Jennie Rigg said...

Jen Yockney MP would be the best thing to ever hit the house of commons.

Can you imagine what the party would be like if we got elected at the same time?

Mwahahahahahahaha

...

Suppose I ought to fill the the forms in at some point.