C
caroljm36
Guest
If you haven’t heard of Melanie Phillips, I highly recommend her. Yesterday she wrote:
If the quality of an individual can be guaged by those who attack her, then the appointment of Ruth Kelly as Education Secretary in the wake of the defenestration of David Blunkett is the best news in ages. Hardly had Ms Kelly’s feet got under her new desk than buckets of ordure rained down upon her from various directions. First off the mark in the much-chucking relay was the sisterhood. Ms Kelly, despite having produced no fewer than four children since becoming an MP and still managed to hold down ever-more demanding political full-time jobs without ever whingeing or playing the female victim card, is not a sister. Correction: it is because she produced no fewer than four children since becoming an MP and still managed to hold down ever-more demanding political full-time jobs without ever whingeing or playing the female victim card that she is not a sister. Hence the extraordinary outpouring of malice, jealousy and spite by the Blair Babes, as the Times reported on December 19:
’Some of the “Blair babes” are disappointed that despite being a working mum she has not been more forthright about women’s issues. “How has she managed to get so far when she’s had so much maternity leave?” asked one female colleague…A woman backbencher who was elected with Kelly in 1997 said: "What’s she ever done for Labour? We were the people in the key seats, rather than that cow who was dropped in and had barely been a party member for a couple of years. She wouldn’t talk to most of us. It was like she regarded herself as one of the ‘in-girls’. This promotion is just a kick in the teeth.'
Oh dear. But much of this animosity derives from intense alarm that Ms Kelly, a practising and extremely serious Roman Catholic and a member of Opus Dei, no less, has the Wrong Views about social issues such as abortion, euthanasia and stem-cell research. As the Times reported today, this has caused panic within Britain’s Frankenstein-industrial complex:
**
‘Robin Lovell-Badge, head of developmental genetics at the National Institute of Medical Research, told The Times Higher Education Supplement: "I have just been in the US and have seen how confused the situation is there. If someone as senior as Ruth Kelly is not going to favour stem-cell research we will end up with a similarly schizophrenic system in this country. It is very worrying. "’**
Note, of course, the implicit assumption that the default position of cannibalising embryos and destroying what remains of the sanctity of human life is axiomatically correct, and therefore any opposing views such as those held by Ms Kelly (she’s religious, so she has to be a nut, just like George W Bush) must by definition be exiled altogether from the policy arena.
Read the whole thing melaniephillips.com/diary
If the quality of an individual can be guaged by those who attack her, then the appointment of Ruth Kelly as Education Secretary in the wake of the defenestration of David Blunkett is the best news in ages. Hardly had Ms Kelly’s feet got under her new desk than buckets of ordure rained down upon her from various directions. First off the mark in the much-chucking relay was the sisterhood. Ms Kelly, despite having produced no fewer than four children since becoming an MP and still managed to hold down ever-more demanding political full-time jobs without ever whingeing or playing the female victim card, is not a sister. Correction: it is because she produced no fewer than four children since becoming an MP and still managed to hold down ever-more demanding political full-time jobs without ever whingeing or playing the female victim card that she is not a sister. Hence the extraordinary outpouring of malice, jealousy and spite by the Blair Babes, as the Times reported on December 19:
’Some of the “Blair babes” are disappointed that despite being a working mum she has not been more forthright about women’s issues. “How has she managed to get so far when she’s had so much maternity leave?” asked one female colleague…A woman backbencher who was elected with Kelly in 1997 said: "What’s she ever done for Labour? We were the people in the key seats, rather than that cow who was dropped in and had barely been a party member for a couple of years. She wouldn’t talk to most of us. It was like she regarded herself as one of the ‘in-girls’. This promotion is just a kick in the teeth.'
Oh dear. But much of this animosity derives from intense alarm that Ms Kelly, a practising and extremely serious Roman Catholic and a member of Opus Dei, no less, has the Wrong Views about social issues such as abortion, euthanasia and stem-cell research. As the Times reported today, this has caused panic within Britain’s Frankenstein-industrial complex:
**
‘Robin Lovell-Badge, head of developmental genetics at the National Institute of Medical Research, told The Times Higher Education Supplement: "I have just been in the US and have seen how confused the situation is there. If someone as senior as Ruth Kelly is not going to favour stem-cell research we will end up with a similarly schizophrenic system in this country. It is very worrying. "’**
Note, of course, the implicit assumption that the default position of cannibalising embryos and destroying what remains of the sanctity of human life is axiomatically correct, and therefore any opposing views such as those held by Ms Kelly (she’s religious, so she has to be a nut, just like George W Bush) must by definition be exiled altogether from the policy arena.
Read the whole thing melaniephillips.com/diary