In eight years, Christopher Chope and his ilk have gone from "Theresa May can't be Leader because she doesn't have children" to "Kemi Badenoch can't be Leader because she does".
Most of my generation understood that Harry Enfield's Tory Boy was a joke. But not quite all. Step forward Robert Jenrick.
After two hours of Badenoch versus Jenrick on GB News, switch over to All Creatures Great and Small. If you could tell the difference, then you would not have had enough to drink.
ReplyDeleteAnyone who says anything pro-family and conservative is these days subject to howls of outrage and misrepresentation from the media. And people like you read the outraged headlines and don’t bother to read the original words.
“from "Theresa May can't be Leader because she doesn't have children" to "Kemi Badenoch can't be Leader because she does".”
Hysterical misrepresentation. He never said you can’t be Leader “because you have children”: he rightly said being Leader of His Majesty’s Opposition isn’t a part-time job you can do remotely on flexible hours…and that both democracy and families suffer if mothers with young children (not any children) take on such a role.
As he rightly added, (but the leftist media strangely didn’t pick up) Mrs Thatcher’s family suffered from her dedication to the role of Leader.
Jenrick himself has disowned Chope.
DeleteSo what? Jenrick is just surrendering to the hysterical media mob. Anyone who says anything pro-family or conservative is now jumped upon by the leftwing media.
ReplyDeleteThank you, ChatGPT.
DeleteThe notion that it might not be wholly wonderful for mothers of young children to abandon them to full time jobs with long hours was once just a commonplace conservative principle that no one would bat an eyelid at, especially from a Tory MP. But in our leftwing age it provokes media hysteria (even when Chope quite rightly added that Lady Thatcher’s family must have similarly suffered from her undoubted dedication to leading party and country). It’s precisely because all mothers in Parliament are strident feminist full time working mother types that stay-at-home mothers get no support from the British state.
ReplyDeleteThe Leader of His Majesty’s Opposition is not a mere job with a HR department, remote working and flexible hours but the keystone of our democracy, holding the government to account. It is a full-time, fixed-hours job not a family-friendly one.
Chope was right which is why it was so unfashionable: the truth usually is.
Chope has form. In a crowded field, he is one of the most notorious weirdoes in Parliament. Both candidates must have been dreading his endorsement.
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