Nadine Dorries - A Nation Laughs

Not since Roman Emperor Caligula proposed to make Incitatus, his favourite horse, a Consul has there been an appointment to high office so risible as that made yesterday by alleged Prime Minister Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson. Bozo has promoted (yes, it’s her again) Mid Bedfordshire MP Nadine Dorries to the cabinet, as Culture Secretary.

Nadine Dorries. That’s an interesting name. It’s the same name as the MP who said that her blog was “70% fiction”, but later said that it wasn’t. The MP who claimed that her selection panel had a majority of men, except it hadn’t. The MP who was in favour of all-women shortlists, but then attacked Labour for, er, all-women shortlists.

Dead right it's fishy

The MP who told Bedfordshire Police she had four stalkers, then named her Lib Dem opponent as one of them. The MP who claimed her front door had been removed while she’d been away (you try removing a front door from outside the property). The MP who attacked David Cameron and George Osborne for being posh, but fawned over Bozo.

The MP who joined the pile-on against Labour over allegations of anti-Semitism, while managing to forget that she had been a party to an anti-Semitic campaign against a Jewish (now former) Lib Dem MP. The MP who attacked Piers Morgan for using the word “mad”, because Mental Health. But she’d previously used that same word multiple times, as well as “bonkers”, “insane”, “window lickers” and “barking”.

The MP who was caught (along with two others) disseminating defamatory far-right claims about Labour leader Keir Starmer. The MP who wasn’t happy with the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement because “This deal gives us no voice, no votes, no MEPs, no commissioner”. The MP who criticised wearing of the Burqa because “No woman in a liberal, progressive society should be forced to cover up her beauty or her bruises”. Yes, that MP.

So what was the reaction to this momentous occasion? For some reason, that reaction was less than 100% positive. Former Tory MP Anna Soubry was on the case: “The appointment of Nadine Dorries actually says everything that is wrong and rotten about this Prime Minister's stewardship of this country. She never made it even as a bag carrier. She was not in government at all and for very good reason, she's not up to the job”.

Miqdaad Versi of the Muslim Council of Britain noted she had “Shared tweets by Tommy Robinson … Asked Sadiq Khan about grooming gangs (what's it got to do with him?) … Said vote rigging is ‘commonplace’ in Muslim communities”. Femi Oluwole recalled that she “wanted the police to arrest someone for expressing an opposing view towards a government minister”. Also, Ms Dorries claimed Steve Bray was called Dave.

And Alex Andreou reminded us of Ms Dorries’ claim to cultural fame. “Nadine Dorries, a woman who took off on full MP pay, without even telling her party whip or constituents, to go eat ostrich arse on reality TV, is now a Secretary of State in charge of Culture, and every single TV journo is treating this as a TOTALLY NORMAL THING that happened”.

As for the “digital” part of her brief, it should not be forgotten that Ms Dorries once proclaimed “All my staff have my login details”. So she’s hot on security, too. Perhaps.

Why might the public not take our political class seriously any more? Search me, Guv.

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