Sally Bercow on BB.....does she, or any spouse, have a duty to their spouses job/role?

[ThePosieParker]

She's going in BB, her husband is a public, very public, servant does she make his position and role more difficult?

Are we all a little responsible to 'behave' when our partner's employers/public may view us an extension of them?

I'm starting to worry that I've thrown my weight behind someone awful. Is Sally Bercow so awful that her husband is a laughing stock? I know about the posing in the curtains photoshoot, and I know she's Labour and he's Tory, but they aren't bad? Is it these things that she's judged for (not here, I mean in general). She seems totally regular on Twitter - takes the piss out of the Daily Mail, tells trolls to fuck off, etc.

I don't know why she's agreed to do something as daft and potentially self damaging as BB, but I don't perceive it as marital betrayal. IF her going on BB makes her husband a laughing stock, then that's a feminist issue. Sally is not some wayward appendage of her husband, she's free to make her own decisions (as long as she doesn't betray professional confidences.)

My husband didn't want me to have a male stripogram at my fundraiser, but I did anyway. Undignified, but none of his damn business (I assure you that male strippers aren't exploited sex slaves, btw.)

So she hasn't divulged state secrets then? I think that would probably be the only thing that could reflect on her husband. Of course, she might well be an arse, but she'll be judged as an arse because she's an arse, not because she's not stayed at home and kept shtum. The arse stands alone...

Oh yeah, she's sleazy, no integrity, little dignity. The only reason people have the slightest idea who she is, is beacause of who her husband is. The only reason she can make money from this, is because of who she's married too.

If that is the only reason you enjoy some minor sort of easy, dumb, modern celebrity, then you should have a little respect for your husband, for his job and for your own self-worth.

Hmm, pointy, I agree with you in principle but wouldn't be so judgemental. People are as barmy & diverse as people are, with all our weaknesses ... and at least the Bercows demonstrate a level of mutual individuality that is in short supply, especially in Westminster life. I give them a wide margin of credit for that, and for being bright & sassy (both of them) even though I disagree with most of what they (individually or as a couple) say and do.

But from what you've written, pointydog, it sounds like she shouldn't do whatever it is that she is doing. She's gone on Big Brother, she tweets, she did a bit of a daft pose in some curtains and she doesn't agree with her husband politically. Is that really all it takes to indicate a sleazy person with no integrity or dignity? Because if it does then I will confess to being shocked.

Her husband doesn't seem to have any issue with it at all, and does that sort of thing that really disrespect his job?

What you said more succinctly, Victor! Sounds like pointydog has more traditional expectations of a Wife than John Bercow does ... Sally chose well :)

There is no 'shouldn't' about it. Bercow is free to choose, as she should be.

The fact that she has chosen to pose semi-naked and go on a brainless tv show and squeeze as much trashy publicity for herself as she can purely because of her husband's job, signifies someone with no integrity to me.

She doesn't give a shit about my opinion. I don't think she 'shouldn't' do it. But that is what her choices and actions show me.

I'm not keen on her because she clearly has been invited on BB in her capacity as Speaker's Wife. If she was just Sally Smith the postman's wife then a career as a micro-sleb would be out of the question.

Big difference between her and Miriam Gonzales or indeed Herr Doktor Professor Merkel (I forget his correct title), or even Cherie Booth QC, who have proper jobs of their own, and are fully entitled to leave their own lives.

Fair enough. But I'm shocked, both at that and that the role of Speaker of the House of Commons has enough cache to sustain two careers!

(ermm, lead their own lives - I am not advocating euthanasia for even the most irritating political spouses)

Hang on Dilys - is Sally Bercow not a SAHM? Miriam G-D and Cherie Booth might have had 'proper jobs' but they weren't jobs in which either would become a celebrity.

I don't care. I do care that she's a feminist and her husband supports that. I very much like that she gained a feminist platform courtesy of her husband's job (because the world's the way it is, currently, we have to work our benefits for good) and that her husband supports her to be herself which, imo, is even better than the husband standing on the feminist soapbox with her.

In her position, I wouldn't go on BB - and I suspect it will turn out to be a mistake. But she's not a fool, afaict. BB does seals with contestants. Then they try to wriggle out of their deals. Maybe she is, actually, going to come out of with her dignity in shreds but a few important messages communicated?

I dunno. I don't watch it. But she's already achieved one significan aim, hasn't she? We're all talking about it

I'm not sure what you are shocked at.

And I'm not talking about expectations of a wife. That's so narrow. I would have expectations of relatives, family members. If she was arsing around for publicity on the back of her sister, I'd have the same opinion. And my opinion wouldn;'t be altered by the viewpoint of her sister.

VG I think you can support both viewpoints. Just because you support her right to do as she wants doesn't mean you can't seriously question her character for wanting to appear on BB in the first place.

She's a feminist, is she? And she wants to get important messages across?

I thought she worked until she was sacked. Or is that wrong?

I'm saying (not brilliantly clearly, I grant you) that there's a distinction between someone living their own life independently - which they should be allowed to do with no constraints from their DP's job - and someone who is using the fame from their DP's job to launch their own career / burnish their own public profile, which perhaps gives their DP more of a right of veto.

I really cannot see what positive things she is mean to stand for or how she might be demonstrating some sort of feminism.

Oh, I totally agree sunshineandbooks - that's what I meant by my earlier comment about 'the arse stands alone'. She might be a total arse, insofar as any of us know her, worthy of being mocked in the street for being such a twit.

But no-one's come on the thread and announced anything truly scandalous that would actually impact on her (seemingly perfectly content) husband or his job, have they? And if she has only got there because of her husband, I'm a) amused that the Speaker has such glittering celeb credentials he can confer celeb-ness and b) thinking that it probably says more about current society than it does Sally Bercow.

Sally B personifies current society. Rather obsessed with courting celebrity for its own sake, having done nothing that merits a news story. Having hazy, ambiguous standards with regard to her own actions and how they might impact on others.

The Speaker hasn't got glittering sleb credentials. He is an MP and he is Speaker therefore the tabloids will pounce on any whiff of scandal. Not glittering at all, just more grubby postulating.

There's more than one way to raise £100k for your favourite charity. Especially if you come from a privileged background and have all sorts of lucrative connections. A fine dinner with the Speaker perhaps?

She's also giving a sizeable chink to Max Clifford and taking a sizeable chunk for herself. So I've just read.

It's all part of the show. Having a story, having a charity.

But I think this might be where we enter into a bit of a deadlock, pointydog. Because you say that the tabloids want to pounce on a 'whiff of scandal' presumably not to being HER down but her husband (which I totally agree with) and I say 'scandal is not a SAHM going on BB or wrapping her naked self in some curtains or voting Labour'. If I find out she's been flogging crack out the back of her grace-and-favour flat, then maybe we can talk scandal...