Virginia Blackburn

THE always unspeakable Harriet Harman was on the radio last week, one of the participants in a new Radio 4 show called Reflections. As an exercise in self-delusion she was on top form: had she gone for the Labour leadership she would “definitely” have beaten Ed Miliband, she claimed. Of course you would, love, it’s not like there’s any evidence of misogyny in Labour, is there? But worse, far worse, were her comments about Margaret Thatcher in the early 1980s when the then PM was at the top of her powers.

First she told a story about leaping into a back room at the House of Commons as she was carrying her baby and she didn’t want Maggie’s glance to fall upon the child. (What did she think would happen? That Mrs T could emit some sort of death ray from her eyes? It sounds “quite weird” admitted Harriet – actually it sounds barking mad). And then there was the usual Maggie-bashing, going on about how Britain’s first female prime minister exuded the aura of being a housewife, which is what brave feminists like Harriet were fighting against.

I don’t know if it has ever occurred to Harriet but Baroness Thatcher’s nickname was the Iron Lady, not the Ironing Lady. Maggie absolutely dominated the 1980s, making her mark on every facet of life. She wiped the floor with the opposition and the men who were foolish enough to underestimate her didn’t make that mistake for long. Where were the brave Labour ladies while all that was going on?

Margaret Thatcher proved that a woman can have cojones as big as any man’s. The Labour Party meanwhile is busy kicking out women who