Stella Rimington v Prof Tim Hunt

Unless you've been on Mars or in a coma this last fortnight you will be aware that Nobel prize winning scientist Dr Tim Hunt has been forced out of his honorary positions at University College London. Among his many works he made a scientific breakthrough that has opened up new cancer treatments. But he lost his positions because, in a speech at a conference, he jokingly said that the problem with women in labs is that they fall in love with men and men with them and that if you tell a woman off she cries.

Former spy chief Stella Rimington said this week that women make better spies than men because they are better listeners, are less intense and more relaxed. Not sure but eh, that's what she thinks.

Mrs Rimington's comments barely caused a ripple on the calm waters of public life, why should they? She is entitled to her opinion. However, Professor Hunt's comments caused a positive tsunami of vindictiveness, bile and hysterical foaming at the mouth from members of the emotionally incontinent sisterhood. One barely coherent psycho-feminist on BBC Question Time actually claimed that wimmin everywhere had been 'mortally offended' by his comments.

My only thought is that rationality must be a quality very high up on your CV if you want to be a spy. I know who I would choose if I were recruiting spooks.

Humourless Socialist Pillocks!

Sheffield, not exactly the jewel in England's crown.

One of the things I dislike most about socialists is their complete lack of humour and complete and utter self-absorption. Two particular pillocks stick out this week. Let me mention them.

The first is David Blunkett, a senior figure in Blair's government, which says it all I suppose. This particular prat has been upset the last couple of days and called on Scotland Yard to apologise to the people of Sheffield. I didn't realise the Metropolitan Police had been speeding up the M1 to attach electrodes to the testicles of Yorkshiremen and beat them around the kidneys with rubber truncheons. If only!

No, far worse, Blunkett was upset that hackers have found a secret tape of a Scotland Yard officer telling an FBI agent that: "Sheffield isn't exactly the jewel in England's crown". My God, there must be mass suicides all over the place! If you've ever been to Sheffield I'm sure you will agree that the Scotland Yard officer was being very restrained in his description. I'd describe it as a shithole, but I'm a Lancastrian.

The offending figure, obviously not a female MP.

Then there's the pillock, sorry MP, for Stretford and Urmston, Kate Green. She objected to a Commons bar serving a guest ale called 'Top Totty'. She objected in the chamber and within an hour it had been removed from the bar. I think she objected because the figure on the pump plate is a voluptuous, scantily clad woman, albeit a drawing of a voluptuous, scantily clad woman. Whereas Kate Green is an ugly looking old dog. Well, aren't most feminists?

Germaine Greer

If you ever doubted the insanity of loony wimmins' rights campaigner Germaine Greer, she has now proved herself to be totally and utterly stupid, idiotic and mentally unstable beyond any doubt.

She wants a website set up so that wimmin can publish the names of men they claim have raped them, so all the world can see. She claims that not enough men get found guilty of rape, so the sisterhood should take the law into their own hands.

I wonder how the first woman to enter the details on the website will feel when she gets sued? Or how the first woman will feel whose claim, rightly or wrongly, leads to a mob of the self-righteous ripping the accused apart? Or how the first woman whose accusation leads to a suicide will feel? What does Ms Greer propose to do about the malicious wimmin who make false accusations about a man for all the world to see?

After all the fuss last week about a teacher confirming that the education system is a shambles up pops Ms Greer to prove the point. A friend of mine has just waved his son off  to Warwick University, where Ms Greer spews forth her nonsense. I bet he wishes he'd chosen another university now.

Bugger The Burqa?

I have had a couple of meetings this week at a hotel that gives away the Independent newspaper, to be honest I'd never buy it but when it's free, well why not?

I did find an interesting article in it today by Sophie Morris, all about women wearing the burqa. Following is a quote from the article:

On Monday, President Sarkozy took issue with the proliferation of women wearing the burqa in France, weighing into the debate on whether, as a secular country, the French Republic might outlaw the veiling of one's body from head to toe in public. "The burqa is not a religious sign," he said.

"It is a sign of subservience, a sign of debasement... in our country we cannot accept that women be prisoners behind a screen, cut off from all social life, deprived of all identity."

I instinctively dislike the burqa but believe it to be a matter of individual choice, I'd prefer women not to wear it but ultimately they should decide. I've no doubt we all do things others dislike but individual freedom needs preserving rather than crushing. I do find it strange, however, in these days of security obsession for banks and other institutions to allow masked women, assuming they are all women, to wander in and out at will, but that's another issue.

We all know it's not a religious necessity but Sarkozy is wrong, it is a 'religious sign' just as the crucifix many of us wear is a 'religious sign' but not a necessity imposed by our faith. The burqa is just a bit more obvious than a crucifix and, inevitably, provokes stronger reactions. But then the French have always had an unhealthy acceptance of the dominant and authoritarian nature of their state.

What I do find highly amusing, and thank the burka wearers for it, is to see feminists performing ideolgical contortions trying to balance feminism with multiculturalism in relation to the burka. Now that is fun.