In the confected pre-election class war we’re entering into, Sally Bercow (Illman), the wife of Speaker John Bercow is a glistening beacon of Labour propaganda.
This political serpent with mammaries, first came onto my radar when CF relayed news of the hot water of her nebulously crafted CV had got her into.
The wife of Commons Speaker John Bercow was sacked from a leading City firm after it claimed she had lied about having a degree from Oxford University.
Sally Bercow was dismissed by public relations business Consolidated Communications after it contacted the Oxford authorities and discovered they had not granted her a degree.
The company accused her of having lied on her CV. It also claimed that Mrs Bercow – who at the time was known by her maiden name, Sally Illman – had used ‘multiple CVs’ with different ‘facts’ about her past on each one.
Via various twatterings, I know she she’s given an interview to the Evening StanLaurel, which contains some quite revolting quotes.
While I am not going to cast judgement on her lush cavorting past (glass houses etc), I do think that since she seeks public office, what she thinks now and how her personality influence her politics are important.
Just one line in the part of the interview that deals with her past stands out for me as worth reposting:
A boyfriend warned her that she was behaving badly while drunk. "I said he was being sexist and misogynist. My response was to attack him rather than think about the truth."
Okay.. one more. Think ‘Zeal of the Convert’, and what that likely entails in her future proclamations on the eeeevils of booze.
She stopped drinking abruptly in October 2000, "because it wasn’t fun any more. I went to AA for a couple of meetings. It was very helpful at first. But I thought I could give it up myself: and I did. Never touched a drop since".
So why also the fuss over this flibbertigibbet?
Now she’s trying to become a Labour councillor in a Pimlico ward that is solid Tory and has her eyes on a Parliamentary seat at the next election.
Right, so…
He’s still very Eurosceptic, I’m pro-European.
"I’m really keen on Harriet Harman and her equality agenda – she’s done such a lot to advance the cause of women and I completely agree on her all-women shortlists: they transformed the Labour Party.
"I don’t even want to send the children to the grammars in John’s constituency. I’m strongly against selection, because it entrenches privilege."
And in spite of her having, on account of an inheritance, attended Marlborough College and Oxford:
"Deep down, I do think the Tory party is for the privileged few and what it stands for isn’t in the interests of most ordinary people."
In remarks that will grate with the Tory leadership, she says she doubts his commitment to the public services. "They’re not really interested in opportunity for all. He has his children at state school now but let’s see what happens at secondary level. There’s not a real commitment to the state sector among the Tories. The vast majority of the shadow cabinet send their children privately."
And plenty of the cabinet too, dear, like your esteemed Hattie…
In 1996, Harman sent her younger son, Joseph, to the non-Catholic St Olave’s Grammar School, Orpington, after she had sent her eldest son, Harry, to a Catholic grant-maintained school the London Oratory School, on the grounds that her family were Catholic. This appeared to go against the spirit of the pledge by David Blunkett not to increase selective education. Harman said of her choice: "This is a state school that other children in my son’s class will be going to. That he has got in has got absolutely nothing to do with the fact that I am an MP. Any child in Southwark can apply, many go and admission is open to every child in Southwark irrespective of money or who their parents are.".[32]
There’s sure to be amusement ahead, as it becomes clear that:
In this class war, Labour are on the side of those with none.
On a more superficial note, Conservative media handlers will be on high alert to make sure she doesn’t get on the same platform as poor old Nadine Dorries:
Sally Shagger
Nadine rushed from the chamber shouting
“I’ve gotta fly – Bingo starts at 3.”
Know what I mean?
AJ
UPDATE: No sooner have I clicked Publish than a new update comes via @sscrltt on twatter.
Mad Nad is already there with her claws. Protesteth too much? Lol…
Nadine Dorries, a Tory MP who opposed Mr Bercow’s selection as Speaker, said: “We desperately need to restore both authority and respect to Parliament. What this interview has done is remove any painstaking progress Parliament has made and reduced the Speaker and his office to that of a laughing stock. How can we ask the people to trust us, when the man who holds us to account has such poor judgment that he allowed his wife to give such an appalling self obsessed interview?”
Self obsessed? Ha! Politician, vote for thyself.
Al Jahom's Final Word 