Louise Mensch and John Lydon on Any Questions

[David Johnson]

And now she is having an argy bargy with Joey Barton of all people. She'll be getting into an argument with some teen singer on the Voice next.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/ne ... ensch.html

Anyway I include a piccy of La Mensch for your bedroom wall. Hate the lighting on this. But hey, the skirt.....

[img]http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/arc ... 98112b.jpg[/img]

Apparently it was around about this time that she complained that female MPs were being trivialised by being judged on their looks.

Now dont get me wrong, I am all in favour of a bit of eye candy in the Houses of Parliament. Caroline Flint, very foxy. Rachel Reeves, mmmm. But at least they have plenty going on between their ears. What we dont want is publicity mad MP airheads getting into twitter arguments with Joey Barton and Piers Morgan. Haven't MPs had a bad enough press these last few years already?

[jimslip]

Ah yes Louise Mensch. A brilliant example of the double standards of your typical, "Right on" Leftie. You know the one's that patrol forums telling everyone off for being "un PC" and supposedly standing up for, "Wimmin's rights".

Well not ALL women it would seen.

Recently Louise Mensch became a victim of the poisoned, rabid, bile that lurks just under the surface of your typical, finger wagging leftie. All their anti sexist rhetoric and dogma ditched in an instant and replaced with disgusting, nasty, cowardly attacks on this poor woman. I presume that because she's a Tory and cute, she was seen as fair game to tear apart with the most horrific sexist abuse.

Imagine if you will, these people having absolute power and it takes no great stretch of the imagination to picture executions, imprisonment without trial, torture and so on.

[David Johnson]

"Louise Mensch, Tory whore"

No Jim, airhead!

Being an airhead has nothing whatsoever to do with looks.

If you want to double-check, have a look in the mirror.

[Robches]

David Johnson wrote:


>
> Now dont get me wrong, I am all in favour of a bit of eye candy
> in the Houses of Parliament. Caroline Flint, very foxy.
> Rachel Reeves, mmmm.

Caroline Flint looks dirty I grant you, though a bit worn round the edges these days. She did a bit of a glamour shoot once too didn't she? But seriously, Rachel Reeves? Call Specsavers without delay!

[David Johnson]

Wot? Lovely looking lady. I could listen to her explanations of why Boy George has tanked the economy all day long.

[img]http://www.scottishlabour.org.uk/images ... es_200.jpg[/img]

Since you appear to be a man of no taste whatsoever, you're probably into Theresa May. Here's a pic of her shortly before she was arrested by two PCs for making a pig's ear of the Home Office job!

[img]http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/files ... 16248c.jpg[/img]

I would just like to say that this post is in no way any attempt to try and objectify women.

Thank you.

[Robches]

David Johnson wrote:

> Wot? Lovely looking lady. I could listen to her explanations
> of why Boy George has tanked the economy all day long.
>

I know beauty is in the eye of the beholder, I'm just saying visit your optician. Her awful voice is actually worse than her face, I only hope she doesn't charge ?1.50 a minute for her dirty phone calls.

[Essex Lad]

Robches wrote:

I'm just saying
> visit your optician. Her awful voice is actually worse than her
> face, I only hope she doesn't charge ?1.50 a minute for her
> dirty phone calls.

I'm with Robches on this one. She has the most irritating voice and her m o on Question Time (that's the television programme David on Thursday nights, hosted by David Dimbleby not Any Questions which is the radio show with Jonathan - that seems to confuse you) seems to be to say the same thing over and over again. She comes across as totally thick.

I read that at uni Caroline Flint was something of a feminist who had a huge bush.

[Sam Slater]

Still think Big Brother, Come Dancing and HIGNFY are more populist than Newsnight, the Observer and GQ. You'd be no good doing PR, David!

Like it or not, she's being judged this way, in my opinion, because she doesn't look like your average politician.

As for the lighting and clothes.......don't like. Not even the skirt. The hard lighting and slicked back hair gives her that 'borg' look. No, not Bjorn Borg but the android-type borgs you get in sci-fi stuff. And not even in a sexy way like you get with Seven of Nine:

[img]http://images2.fanpop.com/image/photos/ ... 50-627.jpg[/img]

Oof!

[David Johnson]

I find it strange that you are so resolutely defending her on the looks issue i.e. just because she is attractive, people are nasty to her.

It may be true of some, but certainly not me. You admit she made an "extraordinarily dim" remark on HIGNFY. Surely you have to admit that she made an "extraordinarily dim" remark on Question Time re. her committee "deposing the Murdochs" Not only dim, but deceitful, given she defended the Murdochs after they appeared at the culture committee.

And finally in two years she has made more TV appearances than most MPs do in 10 or 20.

Is this a case of HIGTHFY (Have I got the hots for you) Mr. Slater?

[Sam Slater]

Ah.......so I'm only defending her because I'm a love-struck puppy, not because I think you're being unfair?

Nothing you've said takes anything away from the points I've already made:

1. Many MPs have been on TV more than her.
2. Newsnight and the Observer are hardly Big Brother and Come Dancing in terms of public viewing figures.
3. Her looks will attract more invites for interviews and panel-show appearances.

To imply I'm only defending her because I've got the hots for the woman, along with your quip about putting up pictures of her on my bedroom wall all points to someone who's far more hung up about her looks than I.

I'm not defending her intelligence or policies - just from your accusation. For the record her smile has a bit of Jack Nicholson playing the Joker in it. A bit of a put off for me, quite honestly.

The only decent comeback from you was the point about other MPs being in the game much longer (so will have accumulated more appearances). Still, I think Mensch has got far more publicity out of being on the Parliamentary Panel that grilled the Murdochs than her cover shoot for GQ. She could have foresaw this scandal and pressed to be selected to serve on the Media and Sport Committee, giving her the perfect opportunity to get in on it all but you're going to have to come up with some real gems for me to be persuaded by that theory. Again, I really believe that if she was below average looking and in her 50s no one would have noticed how many TV appearances she's made this past 2 years.

-----------------------

Just had a look to see how Mensch compares to other female MPs when it comes to guest appearances on popular political debate show, Question Time. I only counted appearances over the last two years, so not to skew the findings compared to MPs who've had longer careers.

Here's what I found.

Appearances over the last two years:

Diane Abbot - 5 times
Baroness Warsi - 5 times
Caroline Flint - 5 times
Caroline Lucas - 5 times
Rachel Reeves - 3 times
Shirley Williams - 3 times
Tessa Jowell - 2 times
Justine Greening - 2 times
Theresa May - 2 times
Emily Thornberry - 2 times
Yvette Cooper - 2 times
Susan Kramer - 2 times
Louise Mensch - 2 times

Certain circumstances (racial quotas and Caroline Lucas being the only real candidate for her party) force me to say it might be unfair to judge some for their number of appearances, but if Louise Mensch is a publicity whore, like you accuse her of being, then I don't see that much evidence of it.

I'd say that given her looks she gets more offers of TV work than the others on the above list and actually turns more down than the others, specifically because she doesn't want to be accused of being a publicity seeker. I'd say that she's very aware of how she will be perceived and has to walk a fine line between getting her views (and her party's message) out there whilst trying to still be taken seriously as a female MP with long blonde hair, cheekbones and above average looks.

With you, it seems, she's failed. But that could be your own political leaning that's clouding your judgement. You've not persuaded me, David.