Neither those who love me, nor those who wish they’d never set eyes on me – and I’ll admit to a few, would ever accuse me of being a feminist.

I believe too strongly in the superiority of merit as the fuel to carve a route to the surface, and power one through the flotsam and jetsam of life, to ever support the notion of positive discrimination in any form. I am quite happy to accept personal responsibility for my lowly position in life – I simply wasn’t good enough to rise any higher. I certainly wouldn’t have wanted to be promoted beyond my own ability simply because I was female, or black, or disabled, or any other beneficiary of ‘positive’ quotas. To those who would tell me that it is wrong that there are ‘glass ceilings’ and that some people are good enough, but are simply disbarred, I would say that you can always find examples of people who broke that ceiling, who got where they wanted to be, by sheer force of ability. Feminism, to me, meant helping those who were less able to make the same journey.

I’m about to eat humble pie.

We need women, women who are 50% of the currently apathetic voting population, to band together. Women to support each other and demand a sea change in the way in which we are governed; not by aping men and steeling themselves to join in the calamitous, adversarial, testosterone fueled style of politics we see at present, but to demand that we try a more feminine way of sorting our problems out.

I mean, of course, by utilising our very different communication skills, problem solving skills, and most importantly, our ability to recognise that every member of a ‘family’ has a right to the essentials of life, but equally has a duty to share in the chores, and that sometimes you have to be cruel to be kind.

Men appear to be wired to antagonise, to seek to solve problems by brute force; they admire the ability to shout loudest, insult most picturesquely, grab the most toys. None of those attributes are overly helpful in the present climate.  

We have a Justice Secretary who seeks to ignore the ruling of the Information Tribunal, a Prime Minister who uses any excuse to get out of being held accountable to parliament, a Home Secretary who seeks to emulate the boys and grab everything she can for herself, and then we have Harriet Harmen advising us to defy the rule of law and seek to grab what we can from those who have more than us – or at least from Fred the Shred.

The women who are in parliament have gone native – it is not their fault, it is the only way they could enter politics, patronised by the men, carried in as ‘Blair’s Babes’. How demeaning.

Let us get our dignity back, let us go on strike and refuse to vote for any of them. Let us set up a new party governed by feminine attributes and then vote for that party. We have a precisely equal chance of gaining a majority as the squabbling sack of ferrets currently running the country.

Personally, I am giving the Libertarian Party a chance, their core values are personal reasonability and personal freedom, and I can live with that. They are small and fairly new, so not too entrenched in the male dynamics. If they turn out to be dominated by the same abusive, squabbling, fractious toddlers that the other parties are, then I suggest we start again from scratch;  form the iCommentariat, I believe we have exactly 120 days left to get ourselves organised.  I suspect there are quite a few men who would be glad to be released from the present arrangement too – its not just women who are disillusioned.

Coco March 3, 2009 at 01:11

Anna Raccoon said: ”Chatelaine,
I noticed in Spain last week that
everyone was smoking openly in bars”

***************************************************************
I am
emigrating to Spain then! …………. Are there many Spaniards in Spain nowadays or
have the English taken over?

Coco March 3, 2009 at 01:08

Saul!
………………. I must badmit we are an extremely fabulous-looking couple! I wish
Janes had dragged the tank over though.

Ch March 3, 2009 at 00:14

Both in the Netherlands and in France smoking bans are based on 2
individual laws:
1. the right to a smoke-free working place
2. no
smoking in public areas

ad 1. note the “right”, not the obligation … a lot of people working in a
bar smoke and drink …
ad 2. there’s a lot of discussion about what actually
is a “public area” as the laws are not precise enough [often a cowardish
decision to leave such definition to judges in court cases]. There is,
however, ONE area, which can be defined without any contestants as a PUBLIC
area, which is the STREET. It’s not forbidden to smoke in the streets.

These laws are perfect examples of unnecessary and inadequate regulations,
like so many other laws [yes, I am a libertarian too
].
IMO it would have sufficed to say that everyone has the right to clean
air. Thus any bar or restaurant with a real air-conditioning could be visited
by smokers and non-smokers alike. It would also allow to have smoker and
non-smoker bars and restaurants or separate smoker and non-smoker areas.

I do agree with Coco that some perfumes should be forbidden, especially the
expensive ones with pheromones!

And I am with Saul on Camels filter. Did you try the Camel “Natural”? I can
recommend: only nicotine, NO [100+] additives!

Anna Raccoon
March 3, 2009 at 00:21

Chatelaine,
I noticed in Spain last week that everyone was smoking
openly in bars………what is that all about?, have they found a way round the
legislation? It was definitely no smoking in bars in Portugal last year.

Saul March 2, 2009 at 23:57

Nothing in particular to say, just taking this opportunity to put a post
after yours, in the hope we will be entered into the most aesthetic blog of
the year awards.

Coco March 2, 2009 at 23:52

Gordon Brown makes me choke on my breakfast sometimes …………….. How many
people really do choke on their breakfast and get hauled into hospital because
they have seen a scary picture of somebody like Gordie or Jacqui Schmidt? They
are a massive health hazard ………….. Their toxins permeate my TV screen
sometimes and I come out in a rash all over …………….

Coco March 2, 2009 at 23:49

Exactly! I know somebody who died because she ate a mango! I know somebody
who had a near-death experience from vitamin C poisoning.

People die from eating food with healthy nutritious peanuts in it.

People die doing healthy rock-climbing and cost a bloody fortune in Nimrods
and helicopter rescues.

We are all killing each other by simply driving cars, sitting in tram-cars
and riding around in trains ……………… And that’s just fromcarbon emissions.

Let us all just die doing what we enjoy doing the most.

If we are going to get cancer we will get cancer whether we sit in smoky
atmospheres or not. Trying to cross Oxford Street with all the fumes off the
buses is just as bad as sitting in a pub or office with cigarette smoke. I
have’t seen Oxford Street being closed down yet though!

Anti-smokers always have illogical reasoning for their arguments and in my
judgement should be shot at bus-stops! ……………… As a warning to other
anti-smokers!

Gordon Brown makes me choke on my breakfast sometimes

Saul March 2, 2009 at 23:18

You can drink yourself stupid, but light up a fag and you are public enemy
No 1.

Coco March 2, 2009 at 23:18

I am sick of being nannied! I heard about the Scots saying that would get
rid of all the cheap offers on booze. ……………….. Because of kids and
binge-drinkers!

Why not just lock-up all the kids and idiots and leave the rest of us in
peace to enjoy the cheaper booze?

This is just more of that erosion of liberties again!

I am in a state of serious erosion here …………….. Bits are dropping off me as
I type. In a bit I will be so eroded that I will look like a scab! I will just
be either a scab ………….. or a drip of pus that is so infected that it cannot
even cause itself to scab over. ………………. I will just be a putid and fetid mass
of errrrrr ……………. erosion!

Coco March 2, 2009 at 23:13

Saul ………………… I don’t want to disturb you but have you seen what the crafty
bastards have been doing lately regarding private health insurance? Bloody
well ringing up to see if you have started to smoke!

Some people don’t know this but if they find you have been smoking they
will invalidate the policy unless you declared your smoking ………….. in which
case there is a discount!

Do people realise that without all the tax on tobacco products there
wouldn’t be an NHS?

Coco March 2, 2009 at 23:08

Saul said: ”Surely there is a picture of Marlene with a fag in her mouth
available.”
****************************************************
Pssssssst!
Saul! I know this bird right …………… She knows everything about everything and
how to do it! She has even shown me how to do things …………… But errrrrrrr
……………. I don’t want to push my luck right now ……………… We are engaged in
bringing about a new Government and working with NASA on some really, really
heavy stuff that we cannot mention on here for fear of spontaneously
combusting because of an agreement we signed with George Bush last year ………………
So I daren’t push my luck and ask about a new avatar at the moment.

Saul March 2, 2009 at 23:08

Camel Filters for me, I am in BUPA before the whingers play the NHS
card.
The recent alcohol news in Scotland is a sign that the boozers are
the next target.

Coco March 2, 2009 at 23:02

Saul says: ……………….” Don

Saul March 2, 2009 at 22:49

Surely there is a picture of Marlene with a fag in her mouth available.

Coco March 2, 2009 at 22:48

It’s been lovely seeing some new posters today as well. I am going to be so
polite and nice from now on ………………….

Coco March 2, 2009 at 22:46

Too right Saul! …………………. Janes! Be a sweetie and come and park your big
tank up in here for a moment or two please.

What do you carry onboard that thing anyway? Chewing-gum and stockings?

Speaking as Marlene my alter-ego for a moment ………….. I have hung around in
the barracks a fair few times myself ……………. under the quarter-light …………….. La
la – la la – lah ………………… Da da da da da – dah – Da da – da dah da ……. da dah
da da da dah ………………..

Saul March 2, 2009 at 22:44

Don’t start me on the anti smoking brigade…

Saul March 2, 2009 at 22:29

We need a poster with a nice healthy gravatar to post in between us,
otherwise we will be attacked by the anti nicotine police.

Anna Raccoon
March 2, 2009 at 22:39

Anti-nicotine? Brrrrr, don’t want that sort of talk on here……..

Saul March 2, 2009 at 22:23

Paaahhh, any excuse for pies….

Gloria Smudd
March 2, 2009 at 22:17

I’m just off to cut myself a slab of humble pie; I jumped in before I saw
Saul had suggested Anna should write some proper adverts. I’ll try to choke on
the h.pie and then go for a lie down in a darkened room. That should minimise
the chances of more ill-timed posts from Smudd.

Saul March 2, 2009 at 22:17

I was thinking more along the lines of people who would call a soil
distributing implent, a Bloody Spade, and answered questions with a simple yes
or no.

Gloria Smudd
March 2, 2009 at 22:09

let

Saul March 2, 2009 at 22:07

Perhaps Ms Raccoon could be persuaded to write some job descriptions, to be
advertised in the National Press, requesting individuals to apply…….

Coco March 2, 2009 at 21:59

Oh Saul ………………….. I reckon that we should – as a collective – get down to
this business straight away and find a decent team to run the UK.

Utopia here we come!

Saul March 2, 2009 at 21:52

The recent select committee, questioning the failed bankers, were specific
in highlighting the lack of banking qualifications amongst the people
responsible for the bank’s downfall.

Horses for courses indeed, let’s advertise the top positions in government
and fill them with candidates whose CV’s show them to have the best
credentials for the ministerial posts. Top economists for the position of
Chancellor etc etc.

The position of PM should go to someone with an excellent track record for
running a successful company.

Great Britain PLC.

Coco March 2, 2009 at 21:41

Chatelaine says: ”She corrected herself then to

Coco March 2, 2009 at 21:36

Oh thank you Chatelaine! I was hoping that somebody would understand
this.

Women are either too emotional or too cold to be placed in certain
positions in society. I was a huge Margaret Thatcher fan – and I always
champion women – but it’s horses for courses!

Ch March 2, 2009 at 20:40

Oh Coco, I know exactly what you mean. Couple of years ago hired a
urgently-needed well-qualified female as Senior Assistant. She got pregnant
within 6 weeks, had concentration problems, couldn’t travel [essential!]
anymore. Was alternating on sick-leave or on holidays and then on maternity
leave. In short, she worked for 6 weeks and under French law I paid for 1,5
year. And I badly needed assistance. So when I saw my doctor again, dead-tired
[me that is], she said: “But you were going to have an additional assistant.”
“Yes”, I said, and told her the story. “You should have hired a 40-year-old
one”, she said. “I did”, I said …. She corrected herself then to “40-ear-old
with 2 kids”

Coco March 2, 2009 at 20:13

I agree with Anna Raccoon. I do not believe in positive discrimination
because some bastard ends up not getting the job that they deserve on their
own merits.

However – I must say that under no circumstances would I ever ever ever
EVER have a woman solicitor for an important Court case – unless she had first
had her womb removed – AND I had the ultra-sound scans and written proof on a
hard-copy!!!

Women solicitors seem to have no qualms about getting top positions and
creaming off the plum jobs that put them in the spot-light. So why the Hell
they then go out to dinner and get so drunk and amorous that they end up
with-child I have absolutely no idea.

As I said to my own solicitor – to do it once was pure folly – but to do it
twice within three years was absolutely the WRONG thing to do – whichever way
she looked at it. She did not have the right to become hormonal and irrational
on my money!!! No right at all. And as for all the tmes she was sick and
unable to even get her letters typed-up and phone calls made! – Well!

I told her in no uncertain terms that she had damaged the last bit of faith
that I had in the British Legal system. Had she been in Russia at the time she
would have been forced into having an abortion or asked to leave the
company.

Women are chemically made up of completely different chemicals to men and
are naturally unbalanced at various times of the month whether we admit to or
not and I do not want a hormonal nightmare in charge of my life ever again.
Rant over! Time of the month!

Gloria Smudd
March 2, 2009 at 18:05

Sssshhhh!

Saul March 2, 2009 at 17:51

Gloria Smudd
March 2, 2009 at 16:25

I’m tempted to enrol myself in the Ian Vincible School of Cocksureness and
see if I can’t cultivate a bit of ‘interpersonal influence’ such that I may
‘command respect at the highest level’ with the

AllShookUp March
2, 2009 at 16:17

“… they do have an aversion to the self aggrandisement required to get
there!”

You can get there without needing self-aggrandisement, either as your
motivation or your reward.

Anna Raccoon
March 2, 2009 at 16:10

Eloquently put indeed.
It is not that I think women are ‘better’ than
men, just that they have a different approach to problems, more inclined to
come up with a practical solution and not allow themselves to get sidetracked
by matters of ego.
Perhaps we should wait a week or so, and then approach
the Libertarian Party and see what they have to offer us? Democracy is the
chosen path in the UK – and there are an awful lot of women! If we add on the
men who are fed up with the mud slinging then we become an impressive
force.

Gloria Smudd
March 2, 2009 at 16:09

; but they do have an aversion to the self aggrandisement required to get
there!
……………………….

Lining the guinea pig

Zak March 2, 2009 at 15:40

The clich

AllShookUp March
2, 2009 at 15:04

I dunno, Anna… is, say, the rise in ladette violence a result of aping men?
Or could it be there’s a similar, latent aggression in both genders? But I do
agree that the solution is in women’s own hands.

I was associated with grass-roots politics for years – and the fact was
that women just didn’t put themselves forward for adoption as candidates in
anything like the numbers of men. Even though those that did were equally
successful at selection and subsequently as members.

Good luck with the Libertarian Party… I think they’ll need it. Personally,
I’m inclined to advocate that everybody votes against their incumbent MP and
in favour of their closest opponent. That way, they’d all be slung out!

Anna Raccoon
March 2, 2009 at 15:36

I don’t think that women have an aversion to high office, nor are they
any less capable of managing a ministerial department; but they do have an
aversion to the self aggrandisement required to get there!