Hazel Bleughs has one of those faces that you just want to slap.

[tiredemma]

sneering hag.

manic smile.

Bad bad dye job.

And that's before you even think that she's a money-grabbing, free-loading, hypocrite.

Definitely, she comes across very badly every time.

She is like a fucking grinning manic Cheshire Cat

Oopps sorry, that is offensive to Cheshire Cats

Is she only 2 feet tall?

crikey - why all the hate tonight? There are three threads all criticising her on the basis of her slappable face etc.

I am not a major fan but could we not find a slightly more dignified and less misogynistic way to discuss female politicians?

Apparently it's ok for Tory grandees to claim expenses for their moat, Michael Martin to persistently block reform, (male) Lords in the House of Lords to take cash in return for assisting amendments in legislation - on MN clearly the major political crime is a dodgy dye job.

Sheesh.

I think that they (especially the one with the bloody moat) deserve a slap.

But she totters around like a smug twat.

is Ester Ranzen going to be any better though?

Yep.

s-laaaaag!

I just think it's sad that the only politicians that really get the boot on MN are women.

The hate directed at people like Jackie Smith and Hazel Blears is out of all proportion and seems to have more to do with their gender than their expenses. There are far worse offenders out there who have actually broken the law. But they're men, so apparently it's ok.

Sorry Tiredemma to pick on your thread to vent this on - it's really the accumulation of about a dozen threads I've read over the past few days and not just yours. I just feel the whole thing reeks of female self-hate and is really sad.

It's bloody depressing and I bet Emmaline Pankhurst never thought it would come to this.

Actually,I don't think it has anything to do with gender,I think it is more to do with the "Noses in trough" perception and cos Blears is high profile she has been highlighted.My local news has been full of Eliot Morley who has resigned.(Still claiming for mortgage that has been paid off)I think it goes wider thanthat and people are generally pissed of with politicos with whatever gender or political orientation,especially in light of economic climate and rising unemployment.

I feel particularly strongly about the greeding grabbing labour MP's (not just the female ones) because they are LABOUR MP's.

I expect gratuitous claims from snivelling Tories, but the likes of Blears and her pathetic apology just makes a mockery of what the Labour Party used to stands for.

None of them are sorry, they are just sorry for themselves for getting busted.

In the mainstream press, yes there is criticism about all of them.

But on MN the hate seems unreasonably directed at female politicians.

Until I see a thread where Elliot Morley is slagged off on the basis of his smile/hair/clothes/general existence then I'll continue to think so.

Just maybe, youngvisiter, it's because we expect the worst from those self-serving, white, middle/upper class, males - that it comes as less of a disappointment, hence less ire.

Personally everytime I see George Osborne, David Cameron, and other toffs parading as bastions of working Britons (as opposed to public school boys on a gravy train) I feel the blood pressure rising.

But yes, agree that comments about her sh*t hair are unwarranted and irrelevant. Her smug grin though isn't - she should try to look like she's got a gob-full of humble pie at the moment, as should the rest of them.

Ok sorry,my initial comment was flippant,but I honestly don't perceive it as a gender issue.The biggest recent flaming of a politician has been aimed at the (ex) speaker.i don't think I have seen women victimised per se.My own biggest personal dislike of a politico was Thatcher but this was not because of her gender,but because of policy.If someone acts in an amoral or immoral manner in their job as a politician they should be fair game,male or female.IMHO.I think ther have been threads about Blears but only because she was headline news IYSWIM.

I think she looks like Basil Brush

LOL Fimbo

I particularly loathe that LABOUR couple (Lee?) who both have constituencies around Brentford, & own a house in Brentford, but because it was technically far enough away from Westminster to justify a 2nd home, bought one & did the clever switchee thing between them.

They both need the severest censure possible

BUT it also pisses me off that golden boy D Cameron has a second home in Oxfordshire which required him to take c £20K pa interest in 2nd home payments for the last 4 years.

Nick Clegg said yesterday that his 2nd home belongs to the taxpayer, & that as soon as he no longer needs it it will be sold & the proceeds returned to the taxpayer. I do hope D Cameron, & all the others, have the same intention

Not Lee, Keen

grrrrrrrrr

Don't forget the Wintertons, Ponders, another married couple (only Tories this time) up to exactly the same thing.

What theyoungvisiter said. Even it out ladies. Have a go at Hoon and Darling too. Equally culpable.

Yes but I naively hoped Labour MPs would have better morals, edam so I am angrier about the Keens than about the Wintertons because I feel let down by them.

Oh, & there's Ed Balls & Yvette Cooper too of course - they also have neighbouring constituencies, but theirs are in Yorkshire & they have young (?) children so at least they do need 2 homes. The worst thing about the Keens (to me anyway) is the geography:

"Mrs Keen, 60, who is MP for Brentford and Isleworth in West London, and Mr Keen, 71, who represents neighbouring Feltham and Heston, live in a terraced house in Brentford.
It is just nine miles by road from parliament, in a journey which takes 30 minutes by car or 55 minutes by bus and Tube.
Their house is far enough from parliament to enable them to qualify for the second homes allowance."

So, just because they can, they "have claimed at least £175,000 in publicly-funded expenses to pay for a Thames-side flat which they say they need."

I know what you mean, Ponders, the Labour party has historically and socially always been a moral crusade. The tragedy is that Blair and his ilk (including Gordon) stamped all over that proud history.

At least with the Tories you know they are basically for the wealthy.

On the gender thing - Hazel Bleers is getting much more hatred from us than any others.........and I am guilty of this too.

However because there are still relatively few women in politics, they are still tokens (any group with less than 15% representation is classed as a token), and therefore they are visible and are seen to represent all women. It is wrong that there are so few women because it makes them subject to more scrutiny.

But with Bleers it leaves women is a difficult position, because let's face it Bleers would never be anything other than a twat, even if the entire cabinet was female. So what is one to do? NOT criticise her because she is a WOMAN? The problem is actually because she is a token within a male system.............but it doesn't stop her being one of the most arrogant and vile people in the government.

was it misandronystic when Robert Peston was slated here for his appearance and speaking voice?

Blears deserves all the vitriol directed at her for her amoral behaviour