Monday, February 14, 2005 AD
Two tribes
The Telegraph's Sarah Sands (or "little Sarah Sands", as Alan Clark refers to her in his diaries, after she interviewed him in the early 90s) goes off on one about "tribal" politics:
I'm less convinced by Sands's admiring comments about the shadow cabinet - I notice she manages to avoid mentioning the "quiet intelligence" and "fighting instincts" of Theresa May, Tim Yeo or Nicholas Soames :-) - but I share her admiration for Condoleeza Rice's "cool, clear brain", and her belief that "private charity is more appealing than stagy public virtue".
Notwithstanding that many of my best friends are Labour voters, etc etc, I find socialists - as a tribe - craven, defeatist, unpatriotic, naive, unaccountable, snobbish, pleased with themselves, humourless, bossy, high-spending, stingy with their own money, vindictive, meddling, whingeing, self-pitying, reductive, dreary. None of these characteristics is their fault, because their destiny lies with the state rather than in themselves.I don't entirely endorse this - though the stereotype is certainly very recognisable - but it did make me laugh. Though not as much as Sands's comment later on, which both made me laugh and with which I heartily concur, as she considers Tony Blair's decision to sideline female cabinet ministers during the forthcoming election campaign:
[Blair] perceives the Labour Party disinterestedly. Thus he can identify the grating effect of Labour's Lady Bountifuls and ruthlessly plans to keep them out of the electorate's way.Nice to see the word "disinterested" being used properly for once, too.
Patricia Hewitt reportedly claims that this is prejudice against feminism, but I am afraid it is more personal than that. There is a long tradition of well-educated socialist women who talk to you as if your lack of learning skills does not altogether detract from your worth as a person. Margaret Jay is an obvious example and the Blair Babes have it in spades. As soon as one of them talks about being "more grown-up" or calls for "joined-up government", I want to lob a chair at them.
I'm less convinced by Sands's admiring comments about the shadow cabinet - I notice she manages to avoid mentioning the "quiet intelligence" and "fighting instincts" of Theresa May, Tim Yeo or Nicholas Soames :-) - but I share her admiration for Condoleeza Rice's "cool, clear brain", and her belief that "private charity is more appealing than stagy public virtue".
