AND FINALLY

Are you disillusioned with the sell-out Liberals? Do you find the Tories a bit nasty, Labour a bit useless and think the Greens are sandal wearing losers? Do you think party politics is a sham and a circus? Are you a bored housewife with voyeuristic tendencies? Then your time has come.

Britain’s top selling women’s weekly Take a Break has launched its own political party, ‘Voices for Women’. Eight lucky ladies will be selected to face a readership vote; the three winning candidates getting their big break and the chance to stand in real elections with their magazine mentors footing the bill. Their agenda includes to tackle why there are “fewer women MPs, fewer women in cabinet, a budget which penalises women much more than men, a sense that women are being ignored and sidelined”. Fair enough – and they will also be sure to heed TaB editor John Dale’s previous advice to politicians courting his readership - “Cuddle a fluffy dog, look after your family, be kind to others”.

And it’s not Take a Break’s first attempt to break through the glass ceiling of male-dominated politics. The suspiciously masculine-sounding John Dale is listed as the leader of two other political parties, Mums’ Army and Mums4justice, in addition to Voices for Women. Which all leaves SchNEWS wondering, is Mr Dale manipulating women for his own devious ends or is he just a big mummy’s boy?