Harriet Harman Makes Her Move

Confident, apparently, that she is popular with the electorate at large, Harriet Harman has been earnestly ingratiating herself with party members, whose votes she needs if she is to become Gordon Brown's deputy. Last month she defended the police investigation into "cash for honours," then signalled misgivings about the war by attacking the Attorney General and demanding that the "friendly fire" tape be released. She's also spoken against Catholic exemption from the SORS, another home crowd-pleasing ploy. But will the Woman's Touch pitch really convince? Many will not have forgotten her cutting benefits to lone parents when Social Security secretary or her decision to send her sons to fancy schools. As for the electorate at large, I'm sceptical of claims that the very fact of Harman being a woman will attract the female vote back from Cameron. During the social security row, she tried to cover herself by talking up measures designed to "help lone mothers get work." For better or worse, though, a lot of mothers, lone or otherwise, consider having a job outside the home an unfortunate neccessity rather than a joyful liberation. Will such women look at one like Harman and see someone they relate to?

Comments

[Blog4Justice]

Worse, Harriet has recently started blogging:

http://blog.harrietharman.org/

Haven't noted any responses to her readers' comments yet, though.

[Dave Hill]

I'm not anti-Harman as such, just noting her 'positioning' activities - the other contenders in the cabinet will be at it too soon enough - and querying the assumption that a female leadership figure per se attracts female voters. I'm trying to find out if that's really true. Watch this space.