It took the Tory Party ten days to triangulate and decide that on balance it is wrong for a Nottinghamsire Tory county councillor who may be meeting with victims of domestic violence, to have a calendar of topless women.
LabourList zero of the day David Taylor saw no problem with his calendar. The cynical calculation is that although the pictures of topless women are demeaning and degrading, David Taylor sees it as a price worth paying in his quest to gain votes.
David Cameron does some quality dissembling: “I don’t know the details of this case” OK Dave. This is not really acceptable for a Party leader. In the end Councillor Taylor only received a gentle ticking off. Strong leadership would have been a formal reprimand. This would certainly have happened in the Labour Party.
Since I exposed this in my blog on 30th January there has been silence from the Tory Party. I wrote to Theresa May but have received no response. Would it be cynical tosuggest there was no response until Dave had the chance to go to Nottingham and present himself as “modern”?
If it took them ten days to come to a simple decision like this, how on earth could the Tories hope to run the country? It had to go all the way up to the Leader. Does nobody else in the Tory Party know this is wrong?
Have a look at what the grassroots Tories say on Conservative Home. A Theresa May calendar? Gay calendars? PC Brigade? It is worth reading this trash and nonsense to remind ourselves of how really resistant the Tory Party is to women having an equal place in society. This is their authentic voice and their views. Any woman who hears a soft sound bite should not be taken in.
In the Labour Party Cllr. Taylor would not be allowed to stand for election again. In the Tory Party it is a little ticking off and carry on old boy, a big fuss about nothing. Finally a quick mention for our excellent candidate Rohini Simbodyal in the Jubilee Ward by-election in Enfield. I’m off there later. Campaign details from Rohini on 07814 178 740. Leafleting and door knocking is from 6pm at Edmonton Labour Office at Broad House, 205 Fore Street, Edmonton, N18 2TZ.
In defence of Hello-Dave, it isn’t realistic to expect him to know what every member of his party has stuck to their walls, so not knowing the details of this particular case is fair enough.
That’s the defence over. I don’t think the Cameroids are likely to be any use at all in government. I don’t think they’d be any different to our current lot. Who else? The Lib Dims? Well, since they’d take five years to make their first decision, at least they wouldn’t do much harm.
The minority parties have no experience and it would be a disaster if any of them were suddenly in power. They’d need to work their way up gradually over decades, to work out the nuances of Westminster and the civil servants who operate it.
So I don’t see things changing in the short term. Labour, Tory, much of a muchness as far as I see.
Labour and Tory can call each other names all they want. The ‘bloke in the pub’ sees no difference any more. There is far too much talk of a ‘certain party’ for my taste.
So I hope one or other of you gets back in touch with the electorate soon. I might be third generation but I’m still of immigrant stock and no matter how much I might mock the Big Three, there’s another that worries me more.
They are doing far better than they should be, and they are riding on the big parties’ bickering over trivia, such as calendars, and who said what to who and who was offended and who should apologise.
We’re out here looking at large tax bills, rising prices and uncertain income. We don’t care about the small stuff.
Really.