Well Done Rosie Duffield

Doodledog
All political parties have to put up with pettiness and media slurs, not just the Labour Party. It’s in the nature of politics these days, it’s just what it is.

I felt sorry for Michael Foot at the time. I felt the attacks on him by the press were unwarranted. It was cold, he was quite old and used a stick if I remember correctly, and he was Leader of the Opposition at the time. I felt that if he he needed the warmth of a good overcoat, then why would that not be acceptable? As for that comment about the stick being kicked away from him, I don’t remember that but it was a disgraceful comment and I don’t think he’d get away with it now, quite rightly. He was using a stick for a reason, and the reason was that he was a little unsteady on his feet, and he was required to stand for quite a long time in the cold. Disgraceful remark from Kenny Everet.

However I also thought the furore over Boris Johnson’s clothes was unwarranted. He is, whatever else he might be, a rather eccentric person, and his clothes didn’t always fit him properly. Possibly particularly because he has a rather strange, overweight figure. I don’t think he cares too much about his appearance. He was attacked a lot about that.

With regard to Keir Starmer, it’s certainly true that he has smartened himself up in recent years, possibly with his help of Lord Alli, but he didn’t always dress so smartly. He looks more like a PM in the clothing he’s wearing now. But it’s all image isn’t it? Does anyone remember how Margate Thatcher changed her dress style after she became PM? Her clothes became more corporate, more like a female version of what a man would wear. She started wearing suits and blouses, especially with the pussy bows (I’ve never liked pussy bows on clothes but that’s my personal choice) rather than dresses and coats.

Levels of pettiness and slavish latching on to media slurs . . .
Yes, but they had such good examples to follow, set by the LP over the last few years.

Iam64

Michael Foot was a good public servant. Imagine people still droning on about his overcoat.
Good post rabbitgran

I know. It shows the level of political thinking in the UK, when an old man wears a warm coat to stand outside in the cold, and this is being brought up decades later, despite the decline in standards of what is appropriate that has clearly happened since. The coat was new, expensive and perfectly suitable for the occasion, but because a journalist referred to it as a donkey jacket it has gone down in history as such.

If anyone is in any doubt about the level of pettiness the LP has to put up with, and how slavishly people latch onto media slurs against the left, they need look no further than this 'incident'.

Doodledog

Great post, * rabbitgran*.

Yes. Excellent.

Michael Foot was a good public servant. Imagine people still droning on about his overcoat.
Good post rabbitgran

Great post, * rabbitgran*.

Anniebach the coat was green- it might have been more acceptable in navy or black. Also a haircut might have helped. Perhaps politicians were less image conscious in those days unlike the present bunch.

Michael had been involved in a serious car accident, I saw that coat, it was shot length because of the pain he had in his spine and legs.

Interesting point about Michael Foot - he was thought at the time to be wearing the wrong type of coat, bought from Harrods, to the Cenotaph. Standing next to an immaculately dressed Margaret Thatcher, and surrounded by other men in conventional military and civilian dress, Michael Foot did not conform to the dress rules of the time.
The right wing press represented a section of society who recognised the need to conform in public service.

Thinking more , Angela Rayner and the right wing press.

I so remember the right wing press attacking Michael Foot,it was brutal,claiming he wore a donkey jacket at the cenotaph, which was lies, Kenny Everet shouting ‘let’s kick .michael Foot stick away from him,brought much laughter.

Thank you Rabbitgran

Better paid for by a millionaire than the taxpayer and leaders/wives need to look good on the world stage. Remember the furore about Michael Foot's 'donkey jacket' at the cenotaph?)
If he can’t manage to look good on his dual salary, then that goes a long way to explain why he doesn’t understand how those less well off have to manage.
Asking for help in choosing glasses and clothes which will improve his appearance is much less expensive, if he can’t do it by himself and doesn’t require freebies.

RD didn’t have a crystal ball when she stood for Labour. RD wouldn’t have known about the secret life of Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner and Lord Alli when the election was first announced. Did anyone?

I think RD was dishonest to get elected as a Labour MP and then resign the whip a couple of months later. She has form on this and I think it's more of an attention seeking thing than a high moral stance. A convenient vehicle for her. Keir Starmer has emphasised country first, party second for quite a while now and did so again in his speech at the Labour Party conference last week. I don't think that he has had enough time in office to judge whether he will accomplish improvements for the UK. He has said that he is happy to be judged by whether the country has improved at the next election. (Not that he has any choice about that in a democracy!) It depresses me that a significant proportion of the British electorate live in fantasy land and expect quick fixes within 3 months and are so easily manipulated by much of the cynical British media (Bread and circuses and especially Sky news.) I don't care about the clothes as long as properly declared and within the rules. Better paid for by a millionaire than the taxpayer and leaders/wives need to look good on the world stage. Remember the furore about Michael Foot's 'donkey jacket' at the cenotaph?) I personally don't need the winter fuel allowance payment currently but have some anxiety about retired people who do need it. I do hope that older people will be helped to claim all the benefits to which they are entitled. But I also feel for younger people who need help, especially children. I also don't envy the privilege of politicians and regard some privilege as essential so that they can do an important job well. (But definitely not taxpayer duck houses and the like.)

Ok perhaps I misunderstood.
Certainly, the local representatives were not willing to go against party dictats when I asked them to raise the matter of female safe spaces and the fact that you cannot change sex with the PM or the head of their party.

I don’t think anybody on this thread said that MPs were elected to follow the party line did they? I said that if any MP stands for a party, they are promising the electorate that they will deliver that party’s manifesto on their behalf, which is not the same thing.

It doesn’t actually matter what RD’s views on safe spaces or female rights are, unless the party she is in supports her views.
As I have heard recently, MPs are elected to follow the party line. Do her views reflect the LP’s rulings?

RD made no mention of this in her resignation letter

Which groups?
The onky groups I’m aware of who believe a man can become a woman and keep their genitalia are the trans activists. I don’t know which way they vote. I just know they threaten women who disagree with them to, ‘rape you to death with my lady penis”

Iam64 whoever the groups are that can’t understand cervix and female? I presume they are not right wing?

Her views on safe spaces and women’s rights are the same as mine, as I’ve said on a number of occasions. Who in what left wing are you talking about? All the left leaning posters here, all my family and friends who vote Labour share the same views -

Iam64 I think RD has behaved admirably towards women. Can’t say that for the rest of the left wing.

RD for some time hasn’t behaved well towards many colleagues or the PM . Could be that’s why there’s little support for her

Rosie51

I've copied this extract from a post of mine on another thread.

I note not one single person has made any comment on Starmer launching his election campaign in Kent and not inviting the ONLY elected Labour MP in the county. Could he have made it any clearer that RD was persona non grata as far as he was concerned? He did however, just a few weeks earlier, make a great show of being photographed welcoming Natalie Elphicke (MP for Dover) to the party after she defected from the Conservatives to cross the floor, even though it was known she would stand down at the next election. Of course at that time nobody knew just two weeks later Sunak would declare that intention.

Starmer and many other Labour MPs have treated RD atrociously. Presumably the CLP could have deselected her if they felt she was such a terrible MP?

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