Mary Seacole

Another gold nugget in the Times Online from Rod Liddle:

Haven’t you heard enough about that gallant nurse from the Crimean war, Mary Seacole? Granted she deserves our respect. But now they are building a big statue of the lady in London. Her place in the school curriculum outweighs the amount of time devoted to Disraeli, Bismarck, Abraham Lincoln, Karl Marx, Jules Michelet, Tennyson, Charles Dickens, Gladstone, Clive of India, Queen Victoria andFlorence Nightingale combined.

Your children, if they are educated at a state school, will be able to tell you everything about Ms Seacole, nothing about the rest. I wonder if there was some other mysterious quality she possessed which makes her so compelling? And if I’m right, if it isn’t all a little patronising.

Of course the Sousers have already jumped on that particular bandwagon with that strange kind of inverted racism that the politically correct find thoroughly acceptable:

Mary Seacole House is a mental health drop in day centre primarily for the black and minority ethnic communities of Liverpool 8, although open to all, offering support and advice in emotional and practical matters.

Women In Politics

A nice piece in the Sunday Times today by Rod Liddle:

Off they went, one by one, Labour’s monstrous regiment of women. The nagging harridans, the terminally bovine, the frail and charming, the clever, the stupid, the poutingly minxtastic - all gone, gone. There are now about as many women left in the cabinet as in the Long Room at Lord’s.

Over the years they have left in dribs and drabs - Ruth Kelly, Fiona Mactaggart, Estelle Morris - but this week we have seen a stampede of pretty little feet for the exit. Last out was Caroline Flint, a doughty feminist who nonetheless conceded to pose for a glam centrefold in The Observer.

She says Gordon made her do it. The money shot, however, came on Friday with her interminable and fabulously piqued letter to Brown, the tone of which suggested he’d been caught with the au pair. You don’t care for my feelings! You don’t understand me! I’m just a sex object to you!

Feminists have lamented that this has been a terrible week for women in politics and, by and large, blamed men. But there are still plenty of women left in Westminster - simply that an awful lot have decided that high office is a bit too much like hard work.

“I wanted to laugh, play with children, read novels!” Fiona Mactaggart said, by way of explaining her disillusion with ministerial life.

Still, it’s a shame about Ms Flint. The temptress of the Don valley at least put a bit of colour into grey politics.

Rod Liddle And Trendy Vicars

There really is a 1970s feel creeping into 21 century Britain, inevitable I suppose with a Labour government with prehistoric principles. But there's a trendy vicar in Dorset, yes they do still exist, who went to Bethlehem and came over all pro-Palestinian, to the extent that he has banned "O Little Town of Bethlehem" from his church this Christmas. Very 1970s. Personally I take the Ayn Rand view on Israel as expressed here by Edwin A. Locke.

Then there's the prat headmaster in Nottinghamshire who withdrew his children from a carol festival because it was 'too religious'. Forgive me but isn't Christmas a religious festival? Read all about them in this cracking article by Rod Liddle.

I've always thought that the pinko liberals have caused as much racial hassle in this country as the far-right by, amongst other things, seeing all kinds of imaginary offence on behalf of ethnic minorities. This was brought into sharp focus for me yesterday when, hanging around outside a shop waiting for Mrs B., I got talking to a Muslim fellow. After a pleasant chat about ice hockey, I had my woolly Manchester Phoenix hat on much to Mrs B.'s embarrassment, he headed away with a real hearty and sincere "Have a very happy Christmas". He obviously doesn't find Christmas offensive.