The Times thinks Sally can't have it both ways
Posted: Sat Aug 27, 2011 10:32 pm
The Speaker’s wife has gone too far on Big Brother
At the time of writing Sally Bercow is odds-on favourite to be the first contestant voted out of the Celebrity Big Brother house. You don’t give a toss, do you? Can’t say I blame you. But you can bet your boots that the Speaker of the House of Commons does. John Bercow, her husband, is probably down on his little knees right now praying that the bookies have got it right and his torment will soon end. I can picture him, jackknifed over his mobile phone, hitting the redial button like a woodpecker to vote against his wife.
But Mrs Bercow is garnering support from an unlikely corner. A Tory minister is reportedly leading a House of Commons campaign to keep her in the show. A text message is allegedly circulating among Bercow enemies that reads, unpleasantly, “Vote 4 the Slapper”. MPs who dislike both Bercows reckon that the longer she stays in the house the more harm it will do them. Bookies are offering odds of 20-1 that the Speaker will resign over it.
This would be absurd. Bercow is a good Speaker; how democratic is it to judge him on his wife? And aside from being accused of flautulence by Kerry Katona, she’s coming across better than expected. I’ve never found Sally Bercow “loathsome” like some. Attention-seeking, hell, yes. She screams “look at me!” louder than a knicker-flashing toddler who has overdosed on jelly snakes. But she seems fierce, clever and kind. She’s giving £100,000 of her fee to an autism charity and refuses to be a meek, Norma Major-ish political wife freezing leftover cheese. John Bercow knew what she was like when he married her; indeed they met when she was in the grip of alcoholism and was even more “headstrong”. Besides, politicians are not averse to publicity stunts themselves.
But she has now gone too far even for me. The point came when she revealed to housemates how she talked round her husband, who felt vulnerable about her being in Big Brother. “I just used my feminine wiles and took John away for a dirty weekend in Devon,” she purred on national TV. “He eventually gave in . . .”
It’s not just that I can’t erase the image of dinky John holed up in a cottage, drumming his heels with glee. It’s that it’s such a naff, unkind thing to reveal. She’s right: she’s not an adjunct of her husband; she’s an independent being. But if you can make that feminist argument why the need to use sex to get your own way?
If a man said the same of his wife — “I gave her a good seeing to: that shut her up” — he’d be pilloried. She also says that she loves him. In that case she shouldn’t humiliate him by coming out with crud like this. It gives his enemies ammunition that doesn’t help either of them. Sally Bercow knows she would not be on that show but for her husband’s job; she should respect that job and keep his private life private. That’s nothing to do with feminism, just plain common sense.
At the time of writing Sally Bercow is odds-on favourite to be the first contestant voted out of the Celebrity Big Brother house. You don’t give a toss, do you? Can’t say I blame you. But you can bet your boots that the Speaker of the House of Commons does. John Bercow, her husband, is probably down on his little knees right now praying that the bookies have got it right and his torment will soon end. I can picture him, jackknifed over his mobile phone, hitting the redial button like a woodpecker to vote against his wife.
But Mrs Bercow is garnering support from an unlikely corner. A Tory minister is reportedly leading a House of Commons campaign to keep her in the show. A text message is allegedly circulating among Bercow enemies that reads, unpleasantly, “Vote 4 the Slapper”. MPs who dislike both Bercows reckon that the longer she stays in the house the more harm it will do them. Bookies are offering odds of 20-1 that the Speaker will resign over it.
This would be absurd. Bercow is a good Speaker; how democratic is it to judge him on his wife? And aside from being accused of flautulence by Kerry Katona, she’s coming across better than expected. I’ve never found Sally Bercow “loathsome” like some. Attention-seeking, hell, yes. She screams “look at me!” louder than a knicker-flashing toddler who has overdosed on jelly snakes. But she seems fierce, clever and kind. She’s giving £100,000 of her fee to an autism charity and refuses to be a meek, Norma Major-ish political wife freezing leftover cheese. John Bercow knew what she was like when he married her; indeed they met when she was in the grip of alcoholism and was even more “headstrong”. Besides, politicians are not averse to publicity stunts themselves.
But she has now gone too far even for me. The point came when she revealed to housemates how she talked round her husband, who felt vulnerable about her being in Big Brother. “I just used my feminine wiles and took John away for a dirty weekend in Devon,” she purred on national TV. “He eventually gave in . . .”
It’s not just that I can’t erase the image of dinky John holed up in a cottage, drumming his heels with glee. It’s that it’s such a naff, unkind thing to reveal. She’s right: she’s not an adjunct of her husband; she’s an independent being. But if you can make that feminist argument why the need to use sex to get your own way?
If a man said the same of his wife — “I gave her a good seeing to: that shut her up” — he’d be pilloried. She also says that she loves him. In that case she shouldn’t humiliate him by coming out with crud like this. It gives his enemies ammunition that doesn’t help either of them. Sally Bercow knows she would not be on that show but for her husband’s job; she should respect that job and keep his private life private. That’s nothing to do with feminism, just plain common sense.