Sarah Vine - Pants On Fire

Following her gratuitously catty attack on Mil The Younger and wife Justine for being photographed in a kitchen which did not meet with her approval, Sarah “Vain” Vine, aka Mrs Michael “Oiky” Gove, appeared on the BBC’s This Week to discuss the demands on politicians to put their families on view, and the thought that whatever approach they take to media scrutiny, there is no right answer.

What's wrong with telling Sarah Vine to kick some f***ing leftist, c***?!? Er, with the greatest of respect, Mr Jay

However, and here we encounter a significantly sized however, Ms Vine did not only have to deal with the enquiry of host Andrew Neil, but also Michael Portillo and Alan Johnson, who formed a cross-party consensus passing adverse comment on her Daily Mail article for its sniping, sneering tone. The role of the legendarily foul mouthed Paul Dacre and his mighty organ in cheapening political discourse also attracted criticism.

Alan Johnson observed that Ms Vine, and Amanda Bloody Platell, “trade on this spiteful nastiness”. The fragrant Sarah countered that she had been insulted on Twitter, to which I say Big Intercoursing Deal. The Mail, unlike a random Tweet from A N Other, is read - and all too often believed - by millions. And then she mentioned that Miliband had not, when he succeeded to the Labour leadership, been married.

And "Oiky" still isn't getting Dave's job

Where, asked Neil, had the pressure for Ed and Justine to get married come from? Ms Vine shrugged. “From the newspapers”, she opined, who were “constantly asking ‘why isn’t he married’”. For a Mail pundit, this shows a staggering lack of awareness, but then, she wasn’t an inmate of the Northcliffe House bunker at the time, so perhaps a little Dacre doggie refresher course is in order.

The assault began in late September 2010 in the Mail On Sunday, with the not-at-all delicately crafted headline “Ed Miliband becomes first British political leader of a major party to be living with his family out of wedlock”. We were suddenly back in 1960! Net curtains all over the land were twitching! Yes, “the newspapers” that Ms Vine talks about are, in fact, the newspapers she is working for.

Later that week, the Daily Mail, as happens so often, took the baton from the MoS and ran with it. Tom Utley, who is not at all a homophobic and judgmental bigot, so don’t call him one, asked “At the register office, my baby in my arms, I was asked: Marriage or birth? Why does that memory make me think of Ed Miliband..?” Not got the idea? See the photo caption: “Out of wedlock: Ed Miliband and his girlfriend Justine Thornton”.

“You work for a newspaper that’s done more to pollute public discourse than anyone else in this country” Alan Johnson told Ms Vine. He was right on the money: the Mail and MoS kicked off a campaign of bullying and shaming against Miliband because his relationship with Ms Thornton did not meet with the approval of the Vagina Monologue. And Sarah Vine is more than happy to do as Dacre tells her - no questions asked.

Then she gets some more dosh going on TV and shrugging it all off. What a trouper.