“She even has a grail: an ideal voter, whom she calls Brenda, a mother in her fifties who works in ASDA in Birmingham: “One day I will find her”. “
This sums up Labour perfectly – searching for a mythical working class voter who supports their policies rather than tailoring their policies to suit working class voters. There are plenty of Brendas around Birmingham, they just have different views from Jess on transvestism, immigration, the length of prison sentences and the EU.
…and indeed, if Great Britain is essentially a decent place worthy of defending…as opposed to a vile racist hell-hole that should be abolished immediately and it’s people consigned to re-education camps until they understand how horrible they are…
Never mind ,she supported Luciana Berger . (Positioning herself to get the newspaper columnists vote )
Claire D
2 years ago
I got as far as “you will not get young mothers in Parliament”. I don’t want young mothers in parliament. Objectively the country does not need young mothers in Parliament. We need mature, energetic, committed, people of both sexes. Young mothers have a full-time job already.
Trying to combine running the UK with caring for babies and small children is cruel to yourself, to them, to your partner, and unrealistic and irresponsible as a citizen.
Why just mothers? The most enjoyable stretch of my life were the first few years of fatherhood, taking with my small daughter to parks etc, even something like taking her to the doctor when ill or caring for her when she had chickenpox count as #best time ever#
And I managed to do all this, despite being the breadwinner, because I was pragmatic enough not to take up some random job that offered x% more but would leave me no spare time. I pity those dads who, from necessity or choice, miss those precious years stuck in an office.
Nobody, just nobody, cares if a woman focuses on her career. But it is disturbing that it is practically “progressive” dogma that a mother of a young child must, absolutely has to be more interested in her career than on spending time with and caring for her baby.
It makes sense when you realize that progressive dogma is largely taught in schools and on social media. The more time parents spend working, the more influence ideologues can exert over your children.
You make a valid point Claire. Though you’d get slated in most places these days for saying it. Interestingly the current (temporary) First Minister of Northern Ireland was asked in an interview last week if he’d consider standing as an MP. His response “I’m 39, I have 3 young children, right now I can’t see myself being in London 3-4 days a week”. No doubt he’ll be called a ‘wet’. I’d never agree with his politics but I thought that was a remarkable statement.
Samir Iker
2 years ago
Talks solely about female victims of domestic violence, but not the 1/3rd of victims who are male, laughs at male suicides and at the concept of men’s right.
Ideal feminist indeed, and one can only imagine the reaction if a hypothetical man did the same things but in reverse. Only hypothetical, because very difficult to imagine any actual man being as crass and chauvinistic as the ideal feminist.
Incidentally, even her female-centred concerns are very specific. The abused at Rotherham and Rochdale don’t figure very highly in her speeches I would imagine.
Indeed – I remember fuming when BBC Newsnight had an abysmal interview with her, when she was attacking a male PM who had the temerity to suggest that as there is a Woman’s Day in Parliament, there should be a Man’s Day too.
The completely uncritical interviewer was – you guessed it – Emily Maitlis.
Last edited 2 years ago by Ian Barton
Mike Doyle
2 years ago
“She even has a grail: an ideal voter, whom she calls Brenda, a mother in her fifties who works in ASDA in Birmingham: ‘One day I will find her'”. Sadly for Jess Brenda votes Conservative.
David McDowell
2 years ago
Awful, narcissistic drivel. I assume Gold does this for free?
It’s a complete mystery why Phillips – one of the most petulant, stupid and self-promoting MPs – receives such fawning treatment in the media on a regular basis.
It’s called Sisterhood … which proscribes any criticism of other females.
Also, it’s worth considering that many of any of these media-facing feminists – political or journalistic – would not have lucrative careers without defaming 50% of the population – and uncritically supporting their own.
(its what some feminist writers do on this site)
Can you imagine successfully selling a new book to “the sisters” that even occasionally pointed out that most men are as reasonable and decent as their female counterparts ?
…. and vice versa.
Her restaurant reviews were amusing, until she transitioned into being Cornish she now seems to be channeling the inhabitants of Royston Vasey (the fictional village, not the male comic, which would have been more interesting I suppose).
Terry Needham
2 years ago
“I’m not surprised she admires Harriet Harman, the mother of the House, whose class (upper-middle, if you care) has been treated as suspect for a lifetime.”
Well, I do care. I care a lot when you purport to represent the interests of the lower class, but never quite get round to it.
It’s not only her “class” that’s suspect, it’s her hypocrisy (went to St Paul;s School for Girls but, now that she’s had hers, opposes private education for anyone else; gave us the concept of “women and equalities”) and her judgement in leaping aboard any bandwagon or cause she thinks is trendy and right on, including at one point the Paedophile Information Exchange.
She also opposes grammar schools even though her son attended one!
Steve Walker
2 years ago
I swear Tanya Gold’s writing gets worse with each article. It’s as if she has seven different sentences on the go at at any one time and can’t decide in which order to put them.
“It’s a ludicrous notion which wouldn’t be asked of a man.”
An idiot assertion, with no supporting evidence, by an idiot journalist.
Ian Barton
2 years ago
She needs to learn that the Labour strategy (she has adopted) of routinely implying that half their potential voters are hateful – and hoping to be elected – is utterly idiotic.
If she fails to realise that relentlessly focussing on women’s issues alienates male voters, then she isn’t bright enough to lead any political organisation.
It’s the same in the US with the Democrat party. When asked why on earth I voted for Trump, I always answer that I’d much rather vote for a man everyone hates, than for a party that hates me.
Dapple Grey
2 years ago
I don’t understand a couple of sentences in this review. Why would a ‘woman in a Waitrose advert holding pinot grigio and laughing at charcuterie’ be laughing at charcuterie? Also what does ‘Will someone stand on her head?’ mean?
‘woman in a Waitrose advert holding pinot grigio and laughing at charcuterie’
Word salad with meat in it.
jill dowling
2 years ago
She’s so “down with the working class” she didn’t even realise that double-barrelled surnames are for everyone these days. Another out of touch Labour halfwit
Davy Humerme
2 years ago
A lumpen parvenue and social mountaineer who hides behind a tiresome patina of being “different” from other politicians. Her brand is relentless self promotion
Sound, integrated and unifying policies might be a first step – for the whole party. An electable political platform, in other words, rather than more personal “brand” as suggested by the somewhat effusive author. Parliament may need changing but that is hardly enough to stir the nation and solve its huge challenges ahead. Rather, does Labour believe in any kind of coherent policy, society as a whole – or anything? Or just power through the aggregation of divided and increasingly toxic interest groups (as under Corbyn – who she served).
Last edited 2 years ago by Matt B
Bob Bobbington
2 years ago
Tanya Gold mythologising Jess Phillips. I can’t decide which one of them annoys me more.
I would imagine that you take the level of annoyance that each individual creates, multiply them together and square the result to ascertain how annoying this combination must be.
Franj Lyons
2 years ago
My goodness! Check out some of J.P’s interviews, available on YouTube. She appears not to be a believer in research.
Richard Lyon
2 years ago
Phillips was captured on Commons TV rocking backwards and forwards, hugging her sides, covering her mouth to suppress snorts of laughter, rolling her eyes, pulling faces, and banging her head on the table to express her merriment. (YouTube: “Jess Phillips MP: “Excuse Me For Laughing”).
The cause? She had been asked for her permission to approve a debate in parliament about collapsing rates of educational attainment in boys, rising suicide rates in boys and men, and men’s persistently lower life expectancy and widening life expectancy gap. (“When I’ve got parity, yer can ‘av yer debate”).
You don’t need a brand to be successful in politics. You just need to care about your constituents. As a feminist, Philips has an abiding contempt for half of them.
Harriet Harman, also mentioned approvingly in this piece and apparently admired by Phillips, arranged for the word “father” to be removed from UK family law (except to define their financial responsibilities). She constructs a shrine in her office each year out of a Christmas Tree to Suffragettes – a feminist organisation who’s party piece during WWI was to shame disenfranchised working class young men into conscription and death (or suicide) by attaching white feathers to their jackets.
Perhaps it’s just the feminists who have colonised our law making institution who are not nice people.
Christopher Barclay
2 years ago
Philips was a prominent member of the political class that tried to execute a coup and annul the 2016 referendum result. She tweets regularly. A narcisist.
JR Stoker
2 years ago
This is terribly badly written, to the point of being unreadable.
Last edited 2 years ago by JR Stoker
Brendan Newport
2 years ago
Phillips’ association with crazed conspiracy theorists means that she can never be considered for a Ministerial role.
“She even has a grail: an ideal voter, whom she calls Brenda, a mother in her fifties who works in ASDA in Birmingham: “One day I will find her”. “
This sums up Labour perfectly – searching for a mythical working class voter who supports their policies rather than tailoring their policies to suit working class voters. There are plenty of Brendas around Birmingham, they just have different views from Jess on transvestism, immigration, the length of prison sentences and the EU.
Spot on!
…and indeed, if Great Britain is essentially a decent place worthy of defending…as opposed to a vile racist hell-hole that should be abolished immediately and it’s people consigned to re-education camps until they understand how horrible they are…
Never mind ,she supported Luciana Berger . (Positioning herself to get the newspaper columnists vote )
I got as far as “you will not get young mothers in Parliament”. I don’t want young mothers in parliament. Objectively the country does not need young mothers in Parliament. We need mature, energetic, committed, people of both sexes. Young mothers have a full-time job already.
Trying to combine running the UK with caring for babies and small children is cruel to yourself, to them, to your partner, and unrealistic and irresponsible as a citizen.
Thank you for your sane words, Clare. You restore my faith in womankind.
Why just mothers? The most enjoyable stretch of my life were the first few years of fatherhood, taking with my small daughter to parks etc, even something like taking her to the doctor when ill or caring for her when she had chickenpox count as #best time ever#
And I managed to do all this, despite being the breadwinner, because I was pragmatic enough not to take up some random job that offered x% more but would leave me no spare time. I pity those dads who, from necessity or choice, miss those precious years stuck in an office.
Nobody, just nobody, cares if a woman focuses on her career. But it is disturbing that it is practically “progressive” dogma that a mother of a young child must, absolutely has to be more interested in her career than on spending time with and caring for her baby.
It makes sense when you realize that progressive dogma is largely taught in schools and on social media. The more time parents spend working, the more influence ideologues can exert over your children.
You make a valid point Claire. Though you’d get slated in most places these days for saying it. Interestingly the current (temporary) First Minister of Northern Ireland was asked in an interview last week if he’d consider standing as an MP. His response “I’m 39, I have 3 young children, right now I can’t see myself being in London 3-4 days a week”. No doubt he’ll be called a ‘wet’. I’d never agree with his politics but I thought that was a remarkable statement.
Talks solely about female victims of domestic violence, but not the 1/3rd of victims who are male, laughs at male suicides and at the concept of men’s right.
Ideal feminist indeed, and one can only imagine the reaction if a hypothetical man did the same things but in reverse. Only hypothetical, because very difficult to imagine any actual man being as crass and chauvinistic as the ideal feminist.
Incidentally, even her female-centred concerns are very specific. The abused at Rotherham and Rochdale don’t figure very highly in her speeches I would imagine.
Indeed – I remember fuming when BBC Newsnight had an abysmal interview with her, when she was attacking a male PM who had the temerity to suggest that as there is a Woman’s Day in Parliament, there should be a Man’s Day too.
The completely uncritical interviewer was – you guessed it – Emily Maitlis.
“She even has a grail: an ideal voter, whom she calls Brenda, a mother in her fifties who works in ASDA in Birmingham: ‘One day I will find her'”. Sadly for Jess Brenda votes Conservative.
Awful, narcissistic drivel. I assume Gold does this for free?
It’s a complete mystery why Phillips – one of the most petulant, stupid and self-promoting MPs – receives such fawning treatment in the media on a regular basis.
It’s called Sisterhood … which proscribes any criticism of other females.
Also, it’s worth considering that many of any of these media-facing feminists – political or journalistic – would not have lucrative careers without defaming 50% of the population – and uncritically supporting their own.
(its what some feminist writers do on this site)
Can you imagine successfully selling a new book to “the sisters” that even occasionally pointed out that most men are as reasonable and decent as their female counterparts ?
…. and vice versa.
Sisterhood proscribes any public criticism of other females. I’ll bet there’s plenty of psychological warfare behind the scenes.
Have you read anything by Tanya Gold before? I don’t think I’ve ever read a single piece of her’s that was worth my time.
Her restaurant reviews were amusing, until she transitioned into being Cornish she now seems to be channeling the inhabitants of Royston Vasey (the fictional village, not the male comic, which would have been more interesting I suppose).
“I’m not surprised she admires Harriet Harman, the mother of the House, whose class (upper-middle, if you care) has been treated as suspect for a lifetime.”
Well, I do care. I care a lot when you purport to represent the interests of the lower class, but never quite get round to it.
It’s not only her “class” that’s suspect, it’s her hypocrisy (went to St Paul;s School for Girls but, now that she’s had hers, opposes private education for anyone else; gave us the concept of “women and equalities”) and her judgement in leaping aboard any bandwagon or cause she thinks is trendy and right on, including at one point the Paedophile Information Exchange.
She also opposes grammar schools even though her son attended one!
I swear Tanya Gold’s writing gets worse with each article. It’s as if she has seven different sentences on the go at at any one time and can’t decide in which order to put them.
It’s an unpleasant read for sure
Didn’t get past the second paragraph. There’s only so many times you can utter FFs under your breath without giving up.
She really is the worst writer on Unherd.
I don’t know how she gets so much work.
“It’s a ludicrous notion which wouldn’t be asked of a man.”
An idiot assertion, with no supporting evidence, by an idiot journalist.
She needs to learn that the Labour strategy (she has adopted) of routinely implying that half their potential voters are hateful – and hoping to be elected – is utterly idiotic.
If she fails to realise that relentlessly focussing on women’s issues alienates male voters, then she isn’t bright enough to lead any political organisation.
It’s the same in the US with the Democrat party. When asked why on earth I voted for Trump, I always answer that I’d much rather vote for a man everyone hates, than for a party that hates me.
I don’t understand a couple of sentences in this review. Why would a ‘woman in a Waitrose advert holding pinot grigio and laughing at charcuterie’ be laughing at charcuterie?
Also what does ‘Will someone stand on her head?’ mean?
It’s what happens when you overeducate the middle class.
‘woman in a Waitrose advert holding pinot grigio and laughing at charcuterie’
Word salad with meat in it.
She’s so “down with the working class” she didn’t even realise that double-barrelled surnames are for everyone these days. Another out of touch Labour halfwit
A lumpen parvenue and social mountaineer who hides behind a tiresome patina of being “different” from other politicians. Her brand is relentless self promotion
Well put, sir.
Sound, integrated and unifying policies might be a first step – for the whole party. An electable political platform, in other words, rather than more personal “brand” as suggested by the somewhat effusive author. Parliament may need changing but that is hardly enough to stir the nation and solve its huge challenges ahead. Rather, does Labour believe in any kind of coherent policy, society as a whole – or anything? Or just power through the aggregation of divided and increasingly toxic interest groups (as under Corbyn – who she served).
Tanya Gold mythologising Jess Phillips. I can’t decide which one of them annoys me more.
I would imagine that you take the level of annoyance that each individual creates, multiply them together and square the result to ascertain how annoying this combination must be.
My goodness! Check out some of J.P’s interviews, available on YouTube. She appears not to be a believer in research.
Phillips was captured on Commons TV rocking backwards and forwards, hugging her sides, covering her mouth to suppress snorts of laughter, rolling her eyes, pulling faces, and banging her head on the table to express her merriment. (YouTube: “Jess Phillips MP: “Excuse Me For Laughing”).
The cause? She had been asked for her permission to approve a debate in parliament about collapsing rates of educational attainment in boys, rising suicide rates in boys and men, and men’s persistently lower life expectancy and widening life expectancy gap. (“When I’ve got parity, yer can ‘av yer debate”).
You don’t need a brand to be successful in politics. You just need to care about your constituents. As a feminist, Philips has an abiding contempt for half of them.
Not as a feminist; many female and indeed male feminists are nice people; Ms Phillips just isn’t
Harriet Harman, also mentioned approvingly in this piece and apparently admired by Phillips, arranged for the word “father” to be removed from UK family law (except to define their financial responsibilities). She constructs a shrine in her office each year out of a Christmas Tree to Suffragettes – a feminist organisation who’s party piece during WWI was to shame disenfranchised working class young men into conscription and death (or suicide) by attaching white feathers to their jackets.
Perhaps it’s just the feminists who have colonised our law making institution who are not nice people.
Philips was a prominent member of the political class that tried to execute a coup and annul the 2016 referendum result. She tweets regularly. A narcisist.
This is terribly badly written, to the point of being unreadable.
Phillips’ association with crazed conspiracy theorists means that she can never be considered for a Ministerial role.
https://barthsnotes.com/2019/01/28/two-supporters-of-vip-abuse-accuser-esther-baker-settle-libel-claim-brought-by-former-mp-john-hemming/