Carolyn Flint

[sqad617]

What a prize cow.

She didn't hide her feminism when posing in a salacious manner in a glossy magazine, but when she was not promoted she called in her genes and played the "because I was a woman" card. For Pete's sake, the Cabinet has been "knee deep" in women at one time or another and they have all disappeared because of "family reasons" or not "up to the job".

[jno]

depends what you mean by knee deep: there have always been more men in the cabinet - by a long way. And they disappear for the same reason. In Flint's case the question will be: will the man who replaces her be any better? My guess is no.

[sqad617]

Of course there hase been more men than women in the Cabinet, because there are more men than women in politics.

"Knee deep" was perhaps over the top and replaced by " no shortage of"

My point was, could it not have been that CF was not promotion material, rather than. she was a woman?

Her replacement is another woman Glenys Kinnock...not an MP, but from the House of Lords and here was I assuming that the Labour Party was not in favour of the House of Lords.

I agree that she will probably be no better than CF.

[rov1200]

With the country in a crisis the last thing you want is a woman dashing to the loo for an hour to put makeup on.

[jno]

as I recall, Blair's makeup bill was quite high.

As to whether Flint was poorly treated because she was a woman - I don't know. But it's clear that Brown has far fewer women in his cabinet than Blair did (four against eight, I think). Are they really so much less competent all of a sudden? Or does Brown have a problem with girls?

I notice the only two women were recently removed from Qatar's cabinet. Should we be going the same way as Arab states? This hardly seems right in a supposedly progressive western democracy.

[Joy1]

can't be that bad jno, he's just appointed Glynnis Kinnock asa MEP to fight for his corner in Brussells, to do this he had to giver a peerage, I really think a lot of the women appointed, have stabbed him in the back!

[sqad617]

Joy....she has not been appointed as an MEP, she has been given a Cabinet post as Minister for Europe.

[paraffin]

Ms Flint has simply chucked her toys out of the pram and will be toadying with the rest of the "deserters" to ingratiate herself in the event of Brown stepping down soon and a leadership contest invoked.

But if he doesn't, she and the rest of them are in the sh!t!

[Gromit]

You cannot really pose like in the Observer a few weeks ago, and then complain you are treated as window dressing.

[rov1200]

Nothing has been said about Margaret Beckett who had a seat in the government but is now dropped. Could it be in retaliation for her role in Question Time recently where she said she is not paying any of the money back which she had claimed for?

[ludwig]

If you read her resignation letter, she accuses him of surrounding himself with an inner circle which no-one else can break into - (I assume Balls and co, and various smear campaigners like Damian whatshis face and Tom Watson)
Maybe she's got a point. He is an @rsehole after all.
Perhaps she thought she'd finally get a chance for a decent job with everyone leaving, but when it didn't happen it was the final straw.

[jno]

I think you're right, ludwig. I could be wrong, but Labour seems a much more testosterone business than it was under Blair (not counting Iraq, of course). Blair seemed to be the sort of younger man who actually gets on with women; Brown doesn't.