WOKE BRIGADE SHOULD BACK OFF BETTY

ORDER! Order! Who on earth hired the woke Challenge Consultancy — at a cost of more than £750,000 — to teach one of the most eminent, clever and well-mannered women of British politics how to behave?

Baroness Boothroyd (right), the only woman Speaker of the House, has failed to attend a compulsory training course called Valuing Everyone, which apparently gives advice on sexual harassment and unconscious bias.

Let’s just look back on Betty’s long life for a moment.

She was born in 1929 into a loving, working-class Yorkshire family and, I suspect, was taught the same values I was: good manners; respect for everyone, regardless of class or colour; work hard; neither a borrower nor a lender be — those were drummed into us as children.

Betty needs no training in conscious or unconscious bias.

As for sexual harassment, I suspect she could teach young people a thing or two about it, having worked as a dancer with the Tiller Girls. It would be a foolhardy man who tried to get one over on her. The House of Lords Commissioner for Standards, Lucy Scott-Moncrieff, threatening to impose penalties on Betty, should remember that the latter told MPs wondering how to address the first woman Speaker: ‘Call me Madam.’

Then there’s her support for women. In the early 1990s, when Woman’s Hour was under threat, Betty was the first to call and ask what she could do to save us. Questions were asked in the House. We were saved.

She has patiently explained that, at 91, she couldn’t leave isolation after a period of ill health to take part, and she doesn’t do Zoom. And why should she? She has grace, humour, age and experience. She should be guiding the young, not the other way around.