Daily Mail Special Offer : A free lobotomy for every femail reader !!!!!

I don't always find the Daily Mail revolting, nope not by a long chalk. I only ever find it revolting and repulsive when I read it. Most of the time, I just pretend that it doesn't exist. That way I can delude myself that this horrible rag isn't an insidious poison in our society. The thing I find most revolting is its crusade to stifle female ambition. To me, the Femail section of the horrible rag is tantamount to a cross between heroin addiction and brain cancer. I don't say that lightly. It proselatises for the creed of zero ambition, zero life choices and zero intelligence for its women readers. If you want to be happy, get a crap job or even better no job at all. Find a nice man to make all of your decisions, fund your pension, pay for your hairdos.

In short, the Daily Mail is the propoganda rag for the advocates for stepford wives.I read one of the most offensive articles ever in the awful rag today.  Here's a few choice quotes from this article in the Femail section :-

'Sure, you might have a gold card, but you've maxed it out buying things you can't afford and that you don't even need, trying to fill a void that just can't be filled. You numb your discontentment every night with gin and tonics.'

'I was living the dream. The word "senior" was emblazoned on my business card, my passport was full of stamps and I had a designer wardrobe and matching appliances. All this was supposed to make me happy, but I'd lost my passion, purpose and sense of meaning.'

'far from fuelling our ambition, it seems that the current economic crisis is only compounding our sense that status, success and money are a fool's gold.'

As ever, the Mail is peddling a myth that the only way a woman can be truly happy is to be entirely free of ambition. Sure, there are plenty of women who this may make happy, but there are plenty who it doesn't. There are plenty trapped in dead end jobs or in dead end relationships, who  buy this crap and miss the boat on a successful career, only to find later in life, they've been conned and they are desperately unfulfilled. 

When was the last time the Daily Mail ran a story about a woman turning her life around, taking an open university degree and making something of herself? This horrible story was in the "real issues" section. Todays other real issues in the Daily Mail Femail section? 

Four in five Britons have given up on New Year resolutions - even the one about having more sex

Jean Simmons: The beauty who said no to Howard Hughes - and sabotaged her Hollywood career

 Are these real issues for you?

How about the main story in the Advice column?

Rowan Pelling's sex advice column: 'How can I learn to flirt when I can't even look a man in the eye?'

Rowan Pelling advises :-

Most effective of all is the woman who can make her eyes convey a smile with a certain sparkle. The expression ‘come-to-bed eyes’ doesn’t come from nowhere!

Rog T's advice is somewhat different. "Get some self esteem. Think what you want to do with your life and start doing it, be it work or pleasure. Once you start feeling confident with yourself, you'll be happy to look anyone in the eye and say "This is me". If they like what they see they'll be interested. It's all a load of old cobblers really. Get out and start living. Go and see that band you really like, have that holiday in Tuscany, take up powerboat racing, enroll in the Open University and study something you find interesting. All conversations need to start somewhere and a common interest is a great place." Why doesn't the Mail ever encourage women to have aspiration and ambition? Doing something with your life, having fun and feeling fulfilled isn't unfeminine, quite the opposite.

So why, you may ask, does a red blooded male, get so worked up about this issue? Simple really. I've two daughters and I want them to be happy. I want them to live their life without false boundaries. I want them to feel they can achieve whatever they want, if they work hard. I don't want my daughters to think like semi lobotomised vegetables. That is why we don't buy the Daily Mail. It wouldn't surprise me at all to see an advert for the Mail pronouncing "Be happy, a free lobotomy for all Femail readers in todays Mail on Sunday". What truly baffles me is how the Daily Mail can rant about the wearing of Burkas whilst at the same time seeking to impose a mental burka on the way the women of Great Britain think. I suspect that on this, like many issues such as capital punishment, corporal punishment, censorship, pornography to name a few, the Daily Mail is far closer to the views of Osama Bin Laden and all of the rest of the worlds fundamentalist nut cases than it would have us believe.

Stiletto's & the TUC & the Daily Mail

Reports in the papers today that the TUC want to ban high heeled shoes in the workplace according to an article in the Daily Mail. Bonkers you shout, the Tory party's finest looker, Nadine Dorries comes out firmly on the side of the stiletto brigade, on the grounds that she's 5'3" and no one would see her.

As with all Daily Mail stories, there's more to it than the headlines. Firstly, some members have proposed a motion. This is rather different from actually adopting the policy. If the Tories had adopted every proposal they'd had at their conference, then we'd still have the birch !

Like many issues with clothing, it amazes me that we get so worked up about what other people wear. The Mail is pro stiletto as they believe in a womans right to express themselves. Is this the same Daily Mail which criticised popstar Kate Nash for having a spot on her face? Is it the same Daily Mail that rants about Muslim women in Burka's?

Personally, as someone who runs a business, I really couldn't care less whether a female member of staff wore stiletto's a Burka or both, so long as they did their job. The only stipulation is that they are happy wearing it and are not being compelled (by husband, boss or anyone else).

I'll just say this. Who do you think has done more for the rights of women in the workplace. The Daily Mail or the TUC?

Women in Politics

Caroline Flint (pictured right) has quit the cabinet in high dudgeon. She claims she was used as "window dressing". I thought I'd discuss the way women are treated in politics, but before we do, I thought I'd tell a little anecdote, bear with me, it is relevant.

In 1979, when I was 17, our band did a gig at the Harwood Hall on Mill Hill Broadway. It was a fundraiser for CND. A couple of local National Front supporting skinheads turned up, purely to cause trouble. As my band, the False Dots performed our set, one of these herberts jumped up and spat in my face. I responded by hitting him around the head with my guitar. I then carried on playing. As his friends carted him off, I announced that if anyone else wanted to have a go, they were more than welcome. At the end of the gig, we took all of the gear out on to the street, awaiting my Dad who was going to cart it home in his car. All of a sudden a gang of 7 skinheads seeking revenge appeared. The rest of the band legged it. I was left with all of the gear, on my own. My Dad had always taught me that the first rule of self preservation was to acquire a weapon. I grabbed a couple of beer bottles and smashed them. I shouted at the revenge posse "Come on, lets have some fun". Luckily for me, I'm not a small guy. They stopped. Suddenly they realised that there may be a cost to pay in executing their plan. As they were summing up the odds, my Dad appeared with a huge Iron bar. Although he was 60 at the time, he was a big scary looking bloke. A stream of invective bellowed forth, in his broad Aussie accent. The revenge Posse lost it's nerve and legged it. My Dad shouted "Don't forget to wash your pants out when you get home". The band reappeared and the gear was safely loaded. As we drove home, my Dad told me that this was the first time in my life he'd felt proud of me. When we got home, my Dad excitedly conveyed the story to my Mum. She was livid. "Why didn't you just get him out of there. We could have easily replaced the gear. He could have been killed, what if they'd had knives". My Dad replied that he'd have run them over. My mum called him an idiot and went to bed. My Dad replied "Women!" I sat up drinking whisky with the old man reliving past scraps.

I tell this story as it exemplifies the difference between men and women. In 1919 Europe was full of widows. Millions had died as a result of "The Great Game". Politics has traditionally been a male dominated profession and those few women who get to the top really are tough cookies. Often the most gifted, talented and hard working women are not people who seek the limelight or push themselves to the front. They are happy to do the work and are embarrassed when they get the accolades. From the anecdote above, you might conclude that my mother was cowardly. You would be wrong, she just didn't see the point of the risks & dangers of the altercation. She looked at the whole picture. She formed a different conclusion and a different course of action. She did not understand the male perspective and was sickened by my father and I revelling in it. She saw the flip side, the trip to the hospital, the senseless damage. She'd have preferred to buy some new equipment than run the risk of physical injury.

I have long been of the opinion that the lack of women in senior government positions is a major weakness. I mentioned this yesterday and someone said "Well look what a disaster Jacqui Smith has been". If I'd made the opposite point, would anyone have listed the countless useless male home secretaries we've had. When I was growing up, I attended two secondary schools. Finchley Catholic was an all boys school. Orange Hill was mixed. When I was at Finchley I underachieved. I mixed with a group of friends who were driven by a sense of reckless bravado. When I moved to Orange Hill, I was instantly struck by the calm atmosphere and the lack of aggression (I must say that I think Finchley is now a far better school, from what friends tell me). It seemed to me that the female presence had a major calming influence on boys. It was far more healthy. When Parliament was first broadcast on the radio, it reminded me of class 2B at Finchley at our very worst.

I have a radical idea for reform of Parliament. I think that the number of constituencies should be halved. I think that they should be twice as big, but have 2 MP's. One should be male and one female. I think that in the selection process, only those of the same gender should be able to vote. That way, 50% of parliament would represent the respective genders and be chosen on their merits. I suspect that if the male perspective was taken out of the selection of female candidates, we'd get far better female candidates. I don't think that the existing method gives the better female candidates a chance. The women that get through selection panels are the ones who have figured out how to get through male selection panels.

I'd also cut the number of councillors per ward in Barnet to 2 and have the same selection criteria. That way we'd avoid the existing 60/40 gender split. It would give far better representation. I don't buy into this "the best person will win" nonsense. I just think that men are generally less risk averse than women. For selection committee's this comes across as dynamism. Often this hides a reckless nature, which is what has caused many of the problems within the Council.

My family have always run businesses. My parents did and I do. We've all been highly successful. I ascribe the success of my parents property and car business and the success of my music business to the fact that the calm rational approach of our partners calmed and moderated the mercurial, reckless approach to life which both my Father and I have. I suspect that all of the best decisions that my parents took with the business were made through their combined knowledge. This is certainly true for my business. I am sure that if women had an equal shout in politics, society would be fairer, more civil and more honest.

Sure, there are women such as Lynn Hillan at Barnet who I don't agree with at all. Why shouldn't there be? If there was a 50/50 split I'm sure that the Tories would find just as many women as men who I'd disagree with. I do however think that the 50% of the population which is female would then achieve proper representation. That can only be fair and just, therefore has to be something I support.