In Defence of Louise Mensch MP – Nadine Dorries is Wrong

As regular readers will know I think Louise Mensch MP is a stupid and self centered woman. Her airheaded decision to be an MP and then to quit half way through her first term is pretty pathetic. She claims she wants to spend more time with her kids but is also trying to grow her business interests. The whole thing is a bit rum. My main grip was just that she was pretty thick and said the daftest things on regular occasions ( see HERE,, HERE, and HERE. )

But Dorries, the MP for Mid Bedfordshire who is, I gather known in some circles, as Mad Nad, has another gripe. I lift the following from today’s Daily Telegraph:

“One of the most unprofessional and undignified comments ever heard in a select committee hearing was when Louise Mensch announced that she had to leave a crucial, televised hearing involving the Murdoch’s, in order to do the school run.

“As she left she schmoozed to James Murdoch, in the witness chair at the time, ‘I believe we have children the same age’. This was stomach-turning for female MPs, who act in a professional manner in order not to be judged lacking against our male peers, knowing that hell would freeze over before any male MP would behave in the same way.”

Shame on you Nad. The fact that make MPs regard doing the school run as the responsibility of the “little woman” is a reflection on them not on Mensch. I really cannot say that having one less MP spouting piffle by clocking off early makes one jot of difference to my life. There are so many reasons to have a pop at Mensch but this is not one. Like so many in her party Dorries puts spin (how it looks if one clocks off a bit early) over substance (the fact that Mensch talks rubbish).

Nadine concludes: “Louise has always put her own ambitions first. She has spent her entire time in Parliament void of principle.”

Hmmm. Just out of interest I did a quick Google search on Dorries. This is a woman who had both her daughters on the payroll, costing taxpayers c£30,000. One was paid a salary to act as her office manager while at the same time working on a full time degree. Lucky her. I hope her studies were not affected too badly by that extra work for mum.

Ms Dorries was cleared in the MPs second home scandal. Apparently it was 100% kosher to claim that a tiny hunting lodge 90 miles away from Westminster and 55 miles from Mid Bedfordshire was her main home so that she could claim big allowances (c£60,000) for her large “second home” in her constituency. The hunting lodge was owned by a close pal (Lynn Elson) whose marketing company trousered £51,000 of taxpayers cash for doing research work for Nadine in the space of just 15 months. This has all been declared above board.

And so no-one could say that Nadine ever put her ambitions first. She is the sort of tireless, self-sacrificing public servant that makes us all admire the political class so much.

Prior to her observations on poor Louise Mensch, the most recent comment from Dorries was a claim that the Houses of Parliament were infested with rats. Quite so.