"The thing women have yet to learn is nobody gives you power. You just take it." -Roseanne Barr

[mcgillianaire]

A contender for the Labour leadership contest wishes he had assassinated Margaret Thatcher in the 80s and is applauded loudly. A twenty-six year-old accountant in South Yorkshire tweets about blowing his local airport sky high due to bad weather and is convicted.

Meanwhile, Harriet Harman the acting leader of the Labour Party believes half the cabinet should be made up of women. And there are more women Labour MPs than in all the other parties put together, but they make up just under a third (81 out of 258) of all Labour MPs. She says "Labour men are great - but they are not twice as good as the women". Fair enough, but her arithmetic falls short. 1/3rd women MPs should equal 1/3 cabinet posts right? Besides if she's so keen on gender parity, why didn't she and others join the leadership challenge?

Comments

[loganberrybunny.livejournal.com]

Fairly simple, really. Both McDonnell and Chambers should have been told in no uncertain terms not to be so bloody stupid and sent away with fleas in their ears. Much as I hate Thatcher, and much as I have a sneaking regard for those who keep a bottle of something on ice for the day she leaves this earth, joking about assassinating someone who was nearly assassinated (in Brighton) is going too far. On the other hand, treating the Twitter guy as a potential terrorist is silly in the other direction: if he'd actually been on a plane when he said it, that would have been different.

I find it bizarre that Harman hasn't entered the leadership race, actually. For all that she's often mocked for her right-on views, she's a pretty effective performer, knows how to work the system (nobody expected her to win the deputy leadership) and has done quite well in the Commons as the temporary leader. Agreed about the arithmetic, though.

[mcgillianaire.livejournal.com]

Agreed...

...and agreed.