Mary, Queen of Trolls
The women in David Cameron's Cabinet have been branded "an ugly bunch" by one of the Prime Minister's high-profile advisers. Retail guru Mary Portas said she could not bear to look at them and would relish the chance to restyle them and "put a bit of sex and glamour in there".
In an interview with Heat magazine, she said: "If I were PM I'd restyle all those women. I mean, the female Cabinet, what an ugly bunch." She continued: "Do you know, I could not look at them. I go in for meetings now and they do dress up for my meetings, but I just want to go, "Pleeease no, not that necklace, not that skirt'."
Ms Portas, known as the Queen of Shops for her retail makeovers, was tasked by the premier earlier this year with reviving the UK's high streets.
Drawing a contrast with the continent, she said of French women: "They're like, 'wow', aren't they? What do we have? I'd say let's just put a bit of sex and glamour in there." [Guardian]
The Daily Mail/Guido Fawkes crowd are always convinced that pronouncements like this are some kind of victory for them and constitute another blow against women thinking they're more then they are. Most women will of course greet it with a bored shrug and just carry on with whatever they were doing before, but still, the right-wingers have had a chance to crow and hoot and bark and how lovely for them.
However, if we simply take it as read that this tedious mugwump will wheel out pretty much anything that will draw attention to her (next week's Portas exclusive: “I always make sure my children are looking sumptuous when they leave the house in case today's the day they meet their first predatory paedophile!”), ultimately we're left with the far more important question of whether any politicians' time is better spent on difficult policies or on whether their accessories are in this season. And that's not a question I want answered by someone whose experience mostly revolves around fucking window decoration.