Labour's Harriet Harman is pulling out all the stops in her quest to succeed the Poison Dwarf as Commons Speaker. Her local party passed a motion last month demanding that she withdraw from the contest, arguing that the party requires every MP it can get: "Labour will need the largest and strongest presence possible in the House of Commons to support the Labour manifesto, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and radical socialist policies". Harman swept aside this opposition and declared on Twitter: "I will not back down". She followed that up with the hashtag #SpeakHer, showcasing her feminist credentials (such a feminist in fact that she's never showed an interest in the plight of the thousands of young females raped by Muslim grooming gangs across this country).
Harman's 'feminist' campaign has struck a chord with several other fake feminists in the Commons, so it will come as no surprise that she has been publicly backed by Stella Creasy and Jess Phillips, who also happen to share Harman's commitment to overturning the Leave mandate. While Harman has stated she would be "scrupulously neutral" in the chair, no-one is buying this. Her smug persona makes her an ideal candidate to follow Bercow's fine example of unscrupulous Remain bias, therefore acting as 'continuity Bercow'.
It is this smugness and persistent exploitation of her own gender that has led Harman to an own goal this week. In an interview with the Telegraph yesterday she claims that a vote for her would send a "powerful message" to older women, in particular pensioners and women in their sixties. This interview has riled a lot of people (and actual feminists) who feel that Harman is advocating herself as the 'first female speaker'. In exploiting her age, as well as gender, Harman has doubled down on this faux pas. Betty Boothroyd was the first female speaker and not only that, she was also a woman in her sixties when she was appointed - 62 to be precise. As the longest serving female MP, Harman should be well acquainted with such facts.
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| The insufferably smug Harriet Harman |
Coincidentally, it is Betty Boothroyd's 90th birthday today. Many happy returns, and may your legacy as the only female Speaker continue beyond next month's election!
