No benefit to having me-ternity time off

THERE’S a breed of woman out there who are so stupid and so blinkered you half suspect that they’re some kind of double agent in the war of the sexes, planted among us by the men who want to shove us back into the kitchen, there to remain barefoot and pregnant for the rest of our days. How else to explain the actions of one Meghann Foye, who believes that child-free women should be allowed “me-ternity” leave, a break from work to do our own thing, on the grounds that it is not fair that new mothers get time off and the rest of us don’t?

She has already sparked fury on the grounds that she’s implying maternity leave is some kind of a holiday when it is anything but. I will leave the mothers to fight that corner, though I must highlight one particular idiocy – “There’s something about saying ‘I need to go pick up my child’ as a reason to leave the office on time,” she wrote. “That has far more gravitas than, say, ‘My best friend just got ghosted by her OkCupid date and needs a margarita’ – but both sides are valid.” Actually love, sorry, but they’re not.

What the stupid woman doesn’t seem to realise is that there are still plenty of blokes out there who do not believe women can hack it in the workplace and this is playing straight into their hands.

If you want to have a successful career then it is going to involve hard graft, long hours and a lot of slog. Success, as they say, is 10 per cent inspiration and 90 per cent perspiration. If you don’t want to take that route, fine. But to imply that all women need time out to recuperate, whatever their circumstances, is not so much wrongheaded as downright dangerous.

Could Meghann heed the calls of the sisterhood – and shut up?

THE HOUSE THAT EMMA BOUGHT

OH HOW the mighty are fallen. Emma Watson, the latest thesp who has been latching on to every right-on cause going, has just been named in the Panama Papers as having set up a trust to buy a £2.8million house.

A spokesman point blank denied she received any tax or financial advantages and said it was done solely to protect her privacy but can you imagine Emma’s reaction should, say, a Tory MP have done likewise?

One law for you and one for the little people, eh, Emma?