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One thing I would not have predicted of Jacqui Smith is that she would add to the stock of national gaiety. Thanks to the late-night tastes of her husband and a Carry On up the Commons expenses farce, she finds herself in a triple-X-rated hot spot. The only sympathy I feel for Mr Smith is that he is one of a newly numerous neglected breed, the political husband.
For a start, they are expected to identify wholly with the Alpha female's views: as one reminded me as I railed to him about some fatuous activity of his then prominent Cabinet minister wife. "I completely agree," he said. "But I've had all my views surgically removed."
Some PHs like Leo (as in Margaret) Beckett take the role so seriously they accompany the missus to virtually every TV appearance or event. That looks spooky - as if she couldn't be trusted out alone.
Others wisely stay out of the way. The really daft thing the Smiths did is to have kept employing him as her constituency office assistant. That's asking for trouble if your other half is a Cabinet minister in a contentious post. Get a (daytime) life, Richard.
The sole joy in being a political husband is that you can act as translator for what the Powerfrau is really thinking. I remember one standing by quietly as his wife defended Mr Brown's economic record expansively. As soon as she wandered off, he turned to me and whispered, "Well, it's the Titanic, isn't it?" The Smiths probably know how that feels right now.
* Early one spring morning I am sitting in Talacre sports centre with a jostling league of mummies and nannies, all trying to register our young for pre-school gymnastics. If you're looking for evidence that Olympic success can popularise a sport, start here. Quite happily I sit there for an hour and a half, believing we are first on the reserve list. Some small Beth Tweddle is bound to drop out. Two hours on, the queue is still vast. A horrible truth dawns : I am tenth in line below the reserve list, having failed to queue up before dawn. So my own Tweddle-ette has as much chance of élite cartwheel school this year as I have of inheriting Kate Moss's Topshop contract. Anyone know an under-subscribed children's sport in north London?
* Stop press: vastly important American to visit London. Out of the way Mr Obama, Katie Couric is hitting town for CBS. A nice man who whisked me into the building for an interview was perspiring, puffing and in a state of high anxiety last seen when the White Rabbit in Alice anticipated the Duchess. "It's all got to be ready for her."
I looked around a beautiful, glass, sunlit office with squeaky clean fittings, soigné correspondents and cameras gliding silently into position. Just what does Ms Couric require that makes her presence inspire such anticipation? Whatever she's got, I'd like some.
Reader views (1)
The crucial issue about Jacqui Smith, her husband and her expenses claim is not about his choice of pornographic films but about her negligence in presenting a claim for expenses that included personal not political items. How could she be so careless? What does this tell us about her attitude? Does it not make us doubt her competence?
- Nick Emley, London, England, 31/03/2009 16:49
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