I joined a group of ten women Conservative candidates for dinner last night
- a fun evening. Our new lot are very intelligent, feisty, principled and
gorgeous. I had to do to do the usual move a few places in between courses
thing. The last time I did that was at a party fundraiser, just before David
became leader. I was sat on a table with ten businessmen. On my last musical
chairs shift, as I sat down, the man I sat next to introduced himself by saying
"so Nadine, tell me, what do you prefer, sex or politics" I replied -"sex of
course, but unlike you, I prefer it with someone else".
I expect he ended up made a large donation.
28 comments:
rather a good put-down....
not as funny as a friend of mine who thought his job interviewer had been obnoxious and a slimeball.........as he exited the room into the corridor where others were waiting.....he turned round and said in a loud voice I don't care how much your firm pays....I refuse to have sex with a man
I`m beggining to wonder if this Nadine is a man in drag.
I like Groucho Marx better.
" Sex is like Bridge , if you haven`t got a decent partner you need a really good hand "
All she can hope is that no one at CCHQ reads her blog.
I doubt that Dave likes people who behave either childishly, tactlessly or stupidly during office hours.
Oh goodnes I find these prominent MP`s funny ....oh ho ho (wipes eyes that are blind with mirth)
Hmmmmm?
Our new lot are very intelligent, feisty, principled and gorgeous.
Christ, I'm so bored listening to 'modern' women 'describing' themselves in this way.
Girls, you are not all beyond compare....
Yes, yes, but what did he give her?
She's a fit girl...
Do you know longer have anything worthwhile to say?
Adverts for your Doughty St., links to newspaper articles, links to other's blogs and stories about your iPod.
No originality at all. Is this the new face of Conservatism?
feisty, principled and gorgeous.
= bratty ,unreasonable and self obsessed
BAH
With a wit like that I'd like to see her at the dispatch box - FAST!
Iain says, "Go, girl!" I agree. A long way from here, if you don't mind. And don't come back.
What a crude, snippy, very unfunny person she must be. Most women would have kept their distance by saying pleasantly, "Why do you ask?" There are more subtle, less in-yer-face ways of discouraging crude questions.
Also, she's mixing with the G, H or I-listers, frankly. Every dinner party I have gone to where seating is changed between courses, it is the gentlemen who change their chairs. The ladies remain seated.
The whole thing sounds perfectly ghastly.
Anonymous 5:08 PM - that should have been accompanied by a "don't be putting a cup or a can to your mouth before reading" warning. It was a genuine laugh-out-loud remark.
Can you imagine, not only jumping in on a crude question with something even cruder, but being so proud of yourself that you report it on your blog the next day? This says one thing to me: The lady has no judgement, runs off at the mouth and has very short fuse. Not someone I would want as an MP.
One doesn't like having to keep referring back to this, Iain, but bearing in mind that your "Olympics...should be funded out of general taxation." line taken way back down the posts received such fervent endorsement... Not... That's 'not' in the sense of not one of 67 comments agreeing with you and the majority wanting the fiasco cancelled, it would be interesting to hear your response.
And the Churchillian reply would be "and how much do you charge?"
Mark
Delroy, you are of course free to go and look at other blogs if you don't like this one.
PJ, I will when I have a thoughtful moment. It was an interesting if predictable reaction. Just shows I was not currying favour!
I think one comes here for a certain reliable calmality(Graham Greene word) Delroy, there are lots of thrillingly original people and oddly enough it gets a bit boring .
Please continue exactly as you are Mr. Dale.(I fear change.)
...what happened to moderation...
And to think she's a Cornerstoner.
What's a Cornerstoner?
Newmania said...
I think one comes here for a certain reliable calmality(Graham Greene word) Delroy, there are lots of thrillingly original people and oddly enough it gets a bit boring .
Please continue exactly as you are Mr. Dale.(I fear change.)
10:20 PM
To be honest I've been away and keep coming back.
I definitely find the blog more bland since the A list event.
Agree about the ghastly A-list. Dave just can't get exclusivity out of his bones.
Margaret Thatcher, the grocer's daughter from a smallish town, drove the engine of Britain and our ancestors far further than Dave 'love a hoody'has had the courage to embark on.
I think we should see a group photo of all the A-listers photoshopped in Bullingdon togs! That'll win it!
Dave is not suitable. A toff spiv is not what the British want.
A-listers! I ask you! The man is culturally tone-deaf.
Verity, although you talk (or rather, type) a whole lot of much-needed common sense in general, I have to disagree with your viewpoint on this one.
Of course, a lot here depends upon the precise way in which this man introduced himself to Ms Dorries (facial/body language and tone of voice mean everything in this context, and we cannot glean that from her mere words), I have to ask myself, would I choose such a sentence to introduce myself to a female colleague unless I already knew her well and we were on "jokey" terms? No, I don't think I would. Such a remark could well make a female colleague feel uneasy with me.
Also, we have to consider Ms Dorries' body/facial language as she delivered her riposte. She might well have understood that the man meant what he said in an inoffensive way, and she might have smiled in the spirit of good humour as she countered his remark, knowing that he would take her reply in the same good humour.
All I'm saying is, don't write her off too quickly on the basis of one comment. I like her blog a lot, and I don't see her as a crude woman. If she were my MP I would fight tooth and nail not to lose her. As indeed, Verity, if YOU were my MP I would do the same for you.
Thanks, Tom.
But I think you are mistaken to defend this undiplomatic and ill-advisedly confrontational woman.
The men at the dinner party were "10 businessmen". They weren't in politics. They were invited, clearly, because they have money, and they accepted the invitation, clearly, because they wanted to make contacts with possible future MPs, all of whom were women. (This was a very dimwitted move by Dave's deputies, by the way. Did they really think the 10 men with money thought they were going to enjoy an evening of sparkling wit - a la Nadine - with 10 women candidates who might need financial help?)
Nadine Wotsit noted that it was the last seat exchange (where the women were expected to get up and change seats! How crude!) of the evening, so presumably, everyone had had a a few glasses of wine by that point.
But given the obvious strategy of the evening - which I don't approve of - 10 businessmen had barrelled along to talk to 10 potential MPs who were all women, surely to God she was aware of the nature of men who were invited to the dinner obviously not for their social skills, but their financial potential, before she went to the dinner?
I mean even Tony Blair can sometimes manage to keep his trap shut.
It was the last course of the evening and this fellow, after, I am sure perhaps a cocktail or two and then several glasses of wine, made a stupid remark on the offchance it would work.
All this woman had to do was to jettison her assumption that he was interested in her for her potential as a powerful - if elected - MP rather than perhaps someone to go home with briefly - and say something that would deflect him without offence.
Yes, if a man came up to one on the street and made such a remark, he should find his face surrounded by a filleted wet trout wielded with vigour.
But it was at a dinner party which she had attended of her own free will, hoping for an advantage. If she can't accept that it's in the nature of men to try it on, and, given the cirumstances of that dinner, try to deflect his question pleasantly and eventually get him to joke about it, she should not have been there.
"Why do you ask?" would have lobbed the ball back to him, under pretended interest, without trying to knock his brains out. Or, "I might ask the same question of you! What would you say?" She could have navigated the conversation away from confrontational waters.
I just think she handled it, given the cirumstances that 10 businessmen had been asked to dinner with 10 women candidates, with great crudeness.
Thank you too, Verity, for an interesting reply which I shall take on board.
Actually, thinking about Nadine's article, it is not clear to me whether the anecdote she recounts refers to "last night", or to "the last time I did that...". Her syntax is unclear, reading it through again.
But in any case, I am equally repulsed by this outdated notion of the women being expected to get up and change seats for the benefit of the men! How .... bleurgh! Yuck, it's just...NO, No, No.
But I take your point. If she knew fine well what she was voluntarily getting into, then fair enough.
Nevertheless, if I introduced myself to a woman via such a vulgar line, well, I would deserve a slap on the face. That's just me, I suppose, I wouldn't take such an impolite line with a lady.
"bratty ,unreasonable and self obsessed" - NewMedia
Well done, NewMedia, you've successfully summed up Mad Nad up in just three words.
The vacuity of the woman is amazing. If all Tory women MPs were as useless as her, I'd be calling for all male short-lists. Happily, that's not necessary.
Tom Tyler - You say that women having to get up and change seats while the men remain seated is outdated. I have never even heard of such a habit! It is always the men who rise and change seats in my experience.
However, this is for a social dinner. Not a business dinner. It seems inappropriate and insensitive. That man had probably had a few drinks and was fed up with having someone new plonked down next to him and having to remember the new one's name and pretend to be interested.
It should have been more businesslike and formal and then this man wouldn't have stepped out of line. But they made it like speed dating, it seems to me and it lost a certain gravitas thereby. I find that even men who are a bit bored and vulgar do toe the line in a formal setting.
The whole thing sounds horrible.
"What's a Cornerstoner?"
A supporter of the traditionalist Cornerstone Group which one assumes would be opposed to such uncouth language.
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