There can be no more unappealing combination of poor
journalistic standards, flagrant dishonesty, and a routinely demeaning attitude
to women than that served up by the odious Quentin Letts (let’s not), the Daily Mail’s supposedly hilariously
witty Parliamentary sketchwriter, but in reality just another of those obedient
attack doggies grovelling at the feet of the legendarily foul mouthed Paul
Dacre.
Harry Potter and the Gobshite of Arslikhan
The poor standards, as I noted
at the Leveson presentation, extended to not bothering to take notes, nor
to paying attention: Quent can always make it up afterwards. And the other two
notable attributes can be seen as he retells the weekly Commons joust that is
Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs). Here, his talent for misogyny is given free
rein, yielding maximum repulsiveness.
Thus it was that he
insulted Harriet Harman this week, asserting “Miss Harman is another politician who could do with a tickle under
the armpits ... How remorselessly whiny she so often sounds”. But then, he
has previous with Ms Harman: last
December he called her “Britain’s
most ear-drillingly insistent feminist ... she has been round the block a few times”.
And, as the man said, there’s more.
“Miss
Harman has been in the Commons since 1982. She was one of the first Cabinet
ministers to be sacked by Tony Blair (he may have thought her thick) ... So
socialist yet so posh, so demotic yet so confused, so fragrant yet such a
stinker ... the Gromyko of Camberwell”. As Sir Sean nearly said, I think we
got the point. And this unpleasant attitude towards Labour women is not
confined to Ms Harman.
Of
Yvette Cooper, he told “Just looking
at Ms Cooper is enough to make your bones ache ... grimly serious ... poor
thing ... you needed a heart of gristle not to feel for the poor ewe”. With
Maria Eagle, it
got yet nastier: “a hardline
socialist and a pinstripe-suit-wearing lesbian ... our Angela was yelling ...
like a tattoed stevedore ... Are Labour women never to have their moustachings
tweaked?”
And on
top of the misogyny comes the fantasy: after a particularly difficult PMQs
for Young Dave – you can see my sketch, with some of the exchanges verbatim, HERE
– it became “Miliboob bogged it big-time
with his puerile attack: QUENTIN LETTS sees Cameron wipe the floor with Ed at
PM's Questions”. The inhabitants of the Northcliffe House bunker do seem to
inhabit a strange version of reality.
What is worse, they think there are folks out there who
aspire to do the same. I don’t think so, Quent. Now go and say sorry to Ms Harman.
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