Esther McVey and the Hate Mail

The Daily Hate Mail has done it again tonight.

Esther McVey, a Tory MP, has been promoted to the Cabinet by Cameron in order to give the impression that his government is representative of the whole nation.  Mostly white, male and privately educated.  Plus Esther McVey, a Tory MP who apparently used to be on telly and has been promoted from minister in the DWP to minister in the DWP.  What?  She keeps the same job but now sits in the Cabinet. Promotion Tory style.

The Mail manages a different slant on the story.  McVey flashed a thigh, presumably on the way to somewhere, probably unintentionally, but that was good enough for the self-abusers at Dacre's rag.

Now pardon me, but when Cameron sacked Gove on the grounds of political expediency - the public have worked out for themselves the terrible destruction he has wrought on the education system and they hate him as much as most teachers do - no one was making references to his thighs.

'Gorgeous pouting Mike axed by Dave' is not a headline I expect to see tomorrow and certainly no references to his thighs or any other part of his anatomy.

And what's worse about this is the Mail is read predominantly by women.  Yes, that's right: this toe rag right wing piece of sexist filth, with its odious on-line voyeurism, appeals to women.  And they buy it in huge numbers.

Now I don't know McVey from her telly programmes.   For all I know, she was a very good presenter.

Whether her thighs are attractive, I don't really care.  I am guessing they are not the reason she is in politics. But knowing Cameron's superficial and patronising attitudes to women, who knows?

What is very unattractive about McVey is her politics.  She has been Iain Duncan Smith's deputy, his lackey even, whilst he has brought in the bedroom tax, which has plunged the poor into debt, the Universal Credit which so far has cost hundreds of millions of pounds but has been an unmitigated disaster and the Personal Independence Payments (PIP) where the terminally ill have died before their payments have even been processed.

She's a politician, not some Page Three model.  If she accidentally flashes a thigh, it shouldn't be national news.  But if she works in a government department that is wrecking people's lives, then it should be.  For some odd reason, the Mail hasn't mentioned that bit yet.