PLUS: A night at the Oprah
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The Times and Sunday Times
Tuesday March 9 2021
Red Box
Esther Webber
By Esther Webber
Good morning,
All anybody can talk about today is the impudence of a minor member of the ruling class who has betrayed his real thoughts about his superiors in a candid on-camera appearance. Yes, that's right, the country is still reeling from hearing Mark Drakeford say of Boris Johnson: "Dear me, he really, really is awful."

Now, two hours of Oprah Winfrey quizzing the first ministers of the UK — that I would stay up late to watch.

Trivia question: How many sitting parliamentarians have at one time or another represented the constituency of Lincoln? Answer at the bottom of today's email
Esther Webber
Red Box reporter
Twitter icon @estwebber
 
New this morning
  • The Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s tell-all interview with Oprah Winfrey was the most intensely hyped TV event since the last Bake Off, but it still packed a heck of a punch. Meghan told of alleged racism from royal family members, and claimed she was turned away when she asked for help with her mental health.
  • There is more to deal with than your daily politics email can begin to cover, but you can read all about it in-depth on The Times website. Buckingham Palace continues to grapple with its response, which when it lands will give the story fresh legs - not to mention the ongoing hunt to identify who allegedly made racist comments about the Sussexes' son.
  • What else is going on? Coronavirus cases and deaths have dropped to their lowest level for five months but the government is adamant this should not mean a faster route out of lockdown. The latest extract from Jonathan Calvert and George Arbuthnott’s new book Failures of State looks at the grave cost of swiftly reopening hospitality last time around.
  • A showdown between Boris Johnson and some of his party's big beasts is taking shape, as Tory MPs have vowed to challenge aid cuts in court after senior government sources said that ministers had no plans to give parliament a vote on reducing the UK’s legally binding aid target.
  • In the House: Treasury questions at 11.30am will be followed by an urgent question on the publication of government contracts and continuation of the budget debate. Lots happening on (virtual) committee corridor today, including Professor Chris Whitty and Sir Patrick Vallance in front of the science and technology committee at 9.30am. There's an urgent question in the Lords on NHS pay and committee stage of the Overseas Operations Bill.
  • On Times Radio with Matt Chorley from 10am: Finkelvitch (Daniel Finkelstein and David Aaronovitch) pick over the news (10.30am); The Big Thing: Political Clubhouse - explaining the much-hyped app with Esther McVey and Stephen Doughty (11am); coffee break with Mariella Frostrup (11.35am); New York, New York, with Will Pavia (11.50am); Midday Update - your indispensable half hour bulletin; If I had a day off: Labour's Fabian Hamilton (12.35pm); Quiz: Can You Get To Number 10? (12.50pm).
Jobs for the girls
Allegra Stratton, Boris Johnson's press secretary, has promised there are "improvements to come" on female representation in the cabinet and that more women will be promoted in the impending reshuffle.

Well, that is mighty big of him. The admission that there is a woman deficit at the top is rather charmingly framed as though the prime minister had nothing to do with it and he hasn't been in power for the last two years. Folks, I just turned round and the room was full of chaps!

It must have been some other prime minister who sacked two female cabinet ministers and demoted a third. Stratton's repetition of the line that the Conservative Party should be proud of its record in producing two female prime ministers might be more meaningful had Johnson not been instrumental in getting rid of one of them.

The old chestnut which is always wheeled out when this arises is that there are talented women in junior ministerial positions who just need to sit tight for a bit longer. Which is a little strange when the proportion of female MPs in the Conservative Party has been on the rise for some time; this isn't a supply-side problem.

Likewise, protesting at sexist critiques of Carrie Symonds can fall a bit flat when you look at the gender balance of the team which is officially invited to participate in the prime minister's decision-making process.

There are five women out of 21 cabinet ministers, and two of them — Amanda Milling and Baroness Evans, party co-chairman and Lords leader respectively — are in what one might politely describe as lower-profile roles. Meanwhile, new posts can be magically found for a David Frost or an Alok Sharma.

Amber Rudd, former home secretary, told Red Box: "He keeps on adding men in mini-reshuffles so the percentage of women [in the cabinet] continues to fall and is now at its lowest for a while. It’s disappointing."

Another Conservative ex-minister was reduced to laughter by Stratton's comments yesterday. "'Improvements to come' makes it sound as if they are growing clones but the growing season is taking a bit longer than expected.

"What the government is lacking is emotional intelligence about how the country is feeling after the last year — more women would help improve that. But only if No 10 and the Treasury actually listen to them."

However, Edwina Currie — who at 74 is standing for election again, to Derbyshire County Council — offered a partial defence. "Margaret Thatcher never had any women from the Commons in her cabinet in her 11 years as PM. John Major had none at all for 18 months between 1990 and 1992. I think it is much better now. Of course if senior women like Amber Rudd had stayed put, it'd be even better."

Some observers trace the current problem back to the brutal 2020 reshuffle masterminded by Dominic Cummings and Lee Cain. The last time I wrote about that particular celebration of feminism I was contacted by a survivor, who said: "It was a bit grim reading your email because it brought back memories of the Feb 2020 reshuffle and all the horrors involved."

Not all women who were in government at the time agree with that characterisation, however. One former colleague of Cummings memorably described him to me as "an equal opportunities arsehole", pointing out there were plenty of men who had also been put through the wringer.

In a way the more serious charge is that the prime minister did not stand up to them, or allowed himself to be led.

"I think it was probably more carelessness than sexism," a former aide told me. "But across the board they don’t realise that when they say x, y and z cabinet ministers are shit — and those x y and z all happen to be female that there might be a problem."

Saying there should be more women in the cabinet is not to say there should be positive discrimination. Similarly I don't have much time for the argument which says women are somehow better at empathising with the public or solving problems of statehood in a consensual way - surely this only reinforces gender stereotypes.

Rather, the very thing which makes the omission so glaring is that there is a relatively high number of experienced female MPs and ministers with solid credentials for him to choose from.

Rachel Sylvester
writes in her column today that the clock has run out on Priti Patel as home secretary and the job should go to Michael Gove, which would strip Johnson of his most senior female minister but would at least provide a high-profile vacancy.

One foreseeable risk of assembling a more gender-balanced cabinet is that questions will be asked about other ways in which it should look more like the country at large: what about MPs from ethnic minorities, gay MPs, northern MPs, working-class MPs? But with a more genuinely diverse Conservative Party than ever before, striking a balance should not be beyond the wit of man — or even the prime minister.

Luckily the dire position we are in now should mean the only way is up. Girls may not run the world, but they should have an equal shot at figuring out what exactly it is the chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster does.
Chart of the day
No 10 introduced a new and innovative form of avoiding difficult questions yesterday, with the Downing Street spokesman telling journalists that the PM would address the royal news at the coronavirus press conference, only for the PM to show up and say he did not want to comment.

Instead he followed the rule of thumb that, as a politician, you cannot go wrong by telling everyone you admire the Queen — just don't mention that small incident where you got her to prorogue parliament unlawfully.

Or has he taken a side already? By restricting himself to positive comments about HRH while members of Sir Keir Starmer's team called for allegations of racism to be investigated, you can see how the political divide is falling.

After polling carried out by YouGov yesterday, Harry and Meghan must just be relieved they are not up for re-election. The most striking split among their results was huge disapproval for their actions among Leave voters, which must mean it's a position Starmer will be getting round to soon.
Red Box: Comment
David Lidington
Even as an unrepentant Remainer, I see there are opportunities in Brexit
David Lidington – Former cabinet minister

"Freer global trade in services, another opportunity highlighted in the paper, would benefit our economy and should be a priority in future bilateral trade agreements. I would add that, given the heavyweight role that the EU plays in setting world trade rules, and the long-standing support for trade liberalisation of member states like the Netherlands and the Nordic and Baltic countries, a close future relationship between the UK and EU would boost our chances of securing serious global reform."

Read the full article >
Johanna Ralston and John Wilding
Deal with the obesity crisis to help curb next pandemic
Johanna Ralston and John Wilding – World Obesity Foundation
Richard Graham
Global Britain must avoid return to the sinophobia of old
Richard Graham – UK Trade envoy
Chloe Smith
We won't let Covid interrupt our democracy
Chloe Smith – Cabinet office minister
The cartoon
Today's cartoon in The Times is by Morten Morland.
Worth your time
Hugo Rifkind considers that the story of the Sussexes is, at its core, about celebrity, and telling all does not offer a way out. "Has any celebrity, ever, managed to 'let-me-tell-my-truth' their way to serenity? You don’t calm the sharks by throwing steaks at them."

Today's Thunderer is from Oliver Kamm, who addresses the pulping of a children's book which said coronavirus originated in China, and warns we must never give in to autocratic demands for censorship.

Also not one to take invasions of freedom of expression lightly is Melanie Phillips, who offers a corrective to mayoral hopeful Laurence Fox, elucidating that public health restrictions are not — repeat not — somehow part of "cancel culture".

In the Times diary Patrick Kidd revisits the history of American brides upsetting the royal family. "In Chips Channon’s newly published diaries there is an entry from November 1936 about Wallis Simpson hailing a taxi so that she could go and meet Edward VIII in Scotland. 'King’s Cross,' she said as she hopped in. The driver replied that he was sorry to hear it."

As children return to school, Paul Goodman writes for ConservativeHome that the mission to rescue education must not entail lowering our expectations for pupils. And Mark Wallace makes a bracing case in The i for Nigel Farage to get a peerage. I knew you'd agree.

For one final piece of reading on the story of the day, this is very good from The Atlantic's Helen Lewis, who observes that women marrying into the royal family are expected to be "thin, fertile and silent" and Meghan will not win any sympathy on this side of the pond for breaking the final part of that rule.
Forty-three per cent of you back the government's NHS pay offer, while 57 per cent think it's no good.
Have your say
Yesterday I asked which female politician you'd like to see in No 10.

Guy Clapperton: "Shirley Williams was among the best prime ministers we never had. Sadly she was in Labour during the Militant years so felt moved to split off and form the SDP; maybe there's a parallel universe in which she stayed, became leader and won the keys to No 10."

John Andrews: "Barbara Castle, the most exciting politician, male, female, or other of the last 70 years, and I think the bravest."

Roger Coxhead: "Sarah Champion, the Labour MP for Rotherham. She is someone who respects democracy and the will of the people. As she did with Brexit. Plus she has determination to highlight sensitive issues, such as the child abuse in Rotherham."

Patricia Judson: "Betty Boothroyd, Margaret Thatcher, Anna Soubry."

Phil Parkin: "Ruth Davidson. Such an accomplished politician and well-respected. Think she’d be able to defend the union, and definitely a match for queen Nicola."

Stuart Jones: "Boudica. She can't be queen but she could be prime minister."

Peter McKenzie: "Well, Carrie's already in No 10 so no need for another."

Tony Butcher: "Bessie Braddock — a plus-size politician in every sense. Liverpool to the core, talking and working on mental health 50 years before it became fashionable — a reminder of what genuine Labour politicians used to be like."

Sue McAllister
: "Margaret Thatcher — she would have scythed through Brexit and her scientific mindset and housewifely acumen would have floored the pandemic."

TODAY: With No 10 undergoing renovations, what new feature should Boris Johnson install? Email redbox@thetimes.co.uk and we'll use some of the best tomorrow.
 
Today's trivia answer
Trivia question: How many sitting parliamentarians have at one time or another represented the constituency of Lincoln?

Answer: Four: Lord Taverne, Margaret Beckett, Baroness Merron and Karl McCartney.

Send your trivia to redbox@thetimes.co.uk
 
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