Petty politics amid the horrors of war
YOU’LL have seen that picture of proud, smiling mum Valeria Hlodan feeding her threemonth old daughter Kira. The little one’s hands are almost holding the bottle. Clever little girl. She’s in a pink babygro.you can almost smell that heavenly baby scent, feel that perfect soft skin against your own cheek, kiss those little smudgy eyebrows. Look into those clear, all-seeing eyes.
Valeria and Kira are both dead now of course, blasted to bits in their Odesa apartment when a Russian cruise missile hit.
Two young lives destroyed, two out of so many thousands. It doesn’t bear thinking about so instead this idiotic country of ours obsesses over Angela Rayner’s legs.
The Westminster and media bubble went into meltdown over some confected nonsense about whether the Labour deputy crossed and uncrossed her legs (in the manner of Sharon Stone in the 30-yearold movie Basic Instinct) in order to put off Boris Johnson. If you happened to miss this then all I can say is, lucky you.
It’s one of those occasions when you ask yourself, what would Margaret Thatcher have made of this codswallop? I for one can just imagine the withering, serpentine look that would have turned her adversaries –
whether Tories, Labour or in the media – either to stone or to whimpering wrecks.
Thatcher was often criticised for not promoting women’s interests. But positive discrimination was not her way. She’d made it to the top without any assistance so she didn’t see why other women couldn’t do the same. And in our age, when everyone wants to claim victimhood, her bracing refusal to play that particular game has an undeniable appeal.
She has more in common with Angela Rayner than one might imagine in terms of drive, energy and commitment.
Rayner is tough as old boots – or tough as new boots, which is even tougher – and her story is remarkable. Leaving school at 16, pregnant and with no qualifications, she was a care worker, joined the Labour party and became a trade union representative.
She is now only 41 and deputy leader – pretty impressive. In a political world full of nonentities she stands out, whether you agree with her politics or not.
“Is there a culture of misogyny at Westminster?” drivelled the usual suspects as Legs-gate broke.
“Culture” is now the word people reach for with breathless excitement when they try to pretend that a trivial event is something frightfully important and far-reaching.
But this whole story is nonsense, conjured out of thin air. You know it. I know it. Everyone in Westminster and the media knows it.angela Rayner knows it.
And I don’t suppose the people in Odesa and Mariupol think much of it either.