Weeks ago when it became clear that Boris Johnsonthe most successful PM we have Tories decades, was about to be dethroned, I called former Cabinet ministers who had worked with Penny Mordaunt.
Their judgment was universal. One said, “She’s a beautiful woman, decent, honorable, but she’s not that fast.”
Another said it would be “a mistake to replace a leader with a brain the size of Britain with one with a brain the size of the Isle of Man.”
Today I am quite surprised to see the same people now appearing on TV defending Mordaunt as the savior of the Tory party.
And even more amazed that the lovely young woman I hired as a junior press officer at the Conservative Central Office more than 20 years ago when I was William Hague’s press secretary is now the second favorite to land the top job. The world has gone mad.
Their judgment was universal. One said, “She’s a beautiful woman, decent, honorable, but she’s not that fast.” Another said it would be ‘a mistake to replace a leader with a brain the size of Britain with one with a brain the size of the Isle of Man’
When I first met Penny, she was sensationally beautiful with a Marilyn Monroe figure and masses of perfectly coiffed hair – but she never played on her sexuality.
She was a hard worker. She lived in Reading and walked on foot to catch the 4am bus and then a 5am train to be at the London office at 6am for her early shift. Even then, she was fiercely ambitious. Today her PM4PM slogan is witty, but the thought that she could become our prime minister horrifies me.
Choosing our next leader is an existential challenge. Frontrunner Rishi Sunak is a member of the liberal world elite, dazzlingly wealthy with a woman who claimed non-dumb tax status. And a backbiting whose dismissal caused Boris’s downfall.
Then we have Mordaunt, a Secretary of Commerce who was Secretary of State for a short time, inexperienced in the heat of battle, and woke up so much she still doesn’t know what it’s like to be a woman. In third place is Liz Truss, a woman who served as secretary of state in the cabinet and, as even her opponents admit, has made quite the distinction.
The game has become like that game women play after having a few too many glasses of wine to pick someone to sleep with: “Which one if they had to?” Who can go for a backstabbing like Sunak, or a resourceful like Mordaunt?
Which if necessary? I’m afraid it must be Liz Truss.
When I first met Penny, she was sensationally beautiful with a Marilyn Monroe figure and masses of perfectly coiffed hair – but she never played on her sexuality. She was a hard worker. She lived in Reading and walked to the 4am bus and then the 5am train to be at the London office at 6am for her early shift
My vet told me to put sunscreen on my ginger cat Ted, usually white with splodges, to prevent skin cancer. I applied Factor 50 to his nose, ears and abdomen as recommended. He was clearly upset, spent the next two hours licking everything and then threw up on the couch.
The sinner takes it all
After leaving his second wife of 41, Abba’s Bjorn Ulvaeus, 77, shows up with his new girlfriend Christina Sas, nearly three decades his junior, and says they had been dating “for a while” and had nothing to do. had to do with his marriage.
Mamma Mia, here we go again! Frankly, I could never trust a man who divorced the most divine woman in the world, his first wife Agnetha, she with the perfect thighs.
Divine irony for Hugh
How disappointing that Hugh Grant says he won’t be playing the part of Prince Andrew in the upcoming film about that BBC Newsnight interview with Emily Maitlis – which led to the Queen’s son being removed from public life over allegations that he was a of Jeffrey Epstein’s girls had put to bed.
Perhaps Grant feared it would trigger memories of his own sexual indiscretions after he was arrested for “indecent behavior” with LA hooker Divine Brown.
How disappointing that Hugh Grant says he won’t be playing the part of Prince Andrew in the upcoming movie about that BBC Newsnight interview with Emily Maitlis
In the same breath, TV veteran Fern Britton says she wished she had “push through” with, and not bailed out, her 20-year marriage to her rather tacky ex-husband, chef Phil Vickery. In the following, she says she’s happy to be single, that “life is damn perfect now,” but she wouldn’t turn down the approach of someone who was “sweet and kind.” That’s actually sad, because those who know him say Phil is both things – and apparently still single.
Ahead of the predicted heat wave next week, some schools are canceling gym classes to protect their precious diddums, while others are telling students to stay home and indoors if temperatures rise. No surprises there from teachers of our most spoiled generation of kids. What melts first in the heat? A snowflake.
Much outburst of sympathy after Mo Farah’s revelation that he was trafficked to the UK at the age of nine after the death of his father and forced into domestic servitude.
What a terrible ordeal, but we all still love him.
Perhaps more importantly, we were all heartened by those TV scenes of the multimillionaire being reunited with his mother and brothers. That’s a story I’d love to hear: how Mo helped them out of abject poverty with his wealth.
How Rooneys fell short
Prince Charles and Camilla top Tatler’s annual Social Power Index as the most influential couple in the UK, a no-brainer considering they are our future King and Queen consort. But how absurd that Wayne and Coleen Rooney were in second place, or even in the foreground.
He is the fat prostitute-loving former soccer star who now goes to the US to find work; she de WAG stays at home to look after their four children when she is not on vacation.
The one thing these women have in common, as Camilla revealed in a documentary this week, is their love for gnomes. Camilla has them in her garden, Coleen is married to one.
Well done Nigella Lawson, who called on vile TV chefs to turn cooking into a ‘theatre of cruelty’ and make people at home concerned about food. My recipe for a stress-free meal is Costco’s beef stew, macaroni cheese, and salad — plus big dollops of vino. Licking the spoonful of a-la-Nigella is optional.
It’s about songs, Lady G
Lady Gaga has teamed up with Donatella Versace to design extravagant outfits for her upcoming world tour – so precious they have their own 24/7 security guards.
Meanwhile, Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen are touring worldwide, dressed in jeans and singing songs that define our lives. Lady Gaga is all about the costumes, not the songs. It seems a little shallow, Lady Gaga.
Lady Gaga teams up with Donatella Versace to design extravagant outfits for her upcoming world tour – so precious they have their own 24/7 security guards
After Ivana Trump fell down the stairs at the age of 73, many remember her famous phrase in her cameo appearance in the hit film The First Wives’ Club, where she advises women to divorce: “Don’t get mad, get everything.” !’
But that underestimates the real story of the Czech refugee who ended up in America as a model, became a successful businesswoman herself, helped design Trump Tower (for which we can almost forgive her), married four times, and supported her ex Donald in his attempt. to become president.
And you have to admire a woman who said, “My version of helicopter parenting was to take the kids to work with me in the Trump helicopter.”
San Francisco mental health company BetterUp must be wondering why they hired Prince Harry as their ‘Chief Impact Officer’ when he told us to ‘flex’ our minds instead of ‘fix’ them to get the to unlock greatness from within. Who wants lectures on greatness from such a whiner?
A new report reveals that some families are now so poor in the cost of living crisis that they are forced to use dish soap as a shampoo and even to wash their clothes. You call that poor? Raised in Australia in the 1960s, where the newspaper was the emergency toilet and a bar of soap the hair detergent, Fairy liquid was a luxury!
So Kylie unlikely
Before their appearance on the final episode of Neighbours, Kylie Minogue and Jason Donovan release their 1988 hit song, Just for You, in which she sings, “My love never changes, I still feel the same.”
And miraculously, 34 years later, the Australian star’s face looks the same. Now 54 and denying ever doing any work, Kylie says it’s all to do with her Pond’s Cold Cream Cleanser and good genes. To which we women of a certain age answer, we should be so lucky!