Wednesday 4 March 2020

HOW ABOUT A FEMALE LEADER?

Go on, pull my finger

Chris Bryant is well known for his attention-seeking exploits.  When he's not cavorting in his underpants, the Rhondda MP can be found regularly courting the media with bizarre outbursts including calling for the arrest of President Trump and challenging Tyson Fury to a boxing match.  Earlier this week he bemoaned the lack of a senior openly gay British politician, citing the 'achievement' of US Democrat Pete Buttigieg as some sort of example to follow.


The thing is that Buttigieg didn't achieve very much at all.  He ran for the Democratic presidential nomination, but withdrew before Super Tuesday having watched his campaign go down the pan.  He's not a congressman or a senator, in fact the highest office he's ever held is the mayor of a city in Indiana that no-one outside the US (or perhaps even the state) has ever heard of.  It's a real stretch this comparison.

Crucially, if we're going to talk about firsts - when exactly are Labour going to elect a female leader; not an LGBT person representing roughly six per cent of the population, not a BAME person representing 15 per cent, or a disabled person or a midget - someone from a demographic that is representative of over half of the entire nation?

You see Chris, all the other major parties have had at least one female leader - the Tories, Lib Dems, Greens, SNP, Plaid, UKIP, Brexit Party, SDLP, DUP and even Sinn Fein.  Don't you think you should get that sorted before you worry about that six per cent demographic?  Of course, you're not going to solve it by backing Keir Starmer from a ballot where he is the only man.  You're not going to get a female deputy leader either by backing Ian Murray from a ballot that includes three women.

The LGBT is strong in this one, but his feminism is shite.