My Sally Bercow related dilemma #saveSally #cbb

This isn't an easy thing to admit in polite company, but I've been sucked into watching Celebrity Big Brother.

I'd forgotten it was starting on Thursday night and had been catching up on Torchwood. I had, honestly, intended to watch News at Ten, but saw CBB listed on the planner and decided to watch it, just for a few minutes, to see who was going in.

I have always liked new host Brian Dowling, ever since he won the second series a whole decade ago, although, inexplicably, the Channel 5 budget doesn't seem to stretch to a suit in his size.

It's been years since I properly watched Big Brother - the last series I took a real interest in was the one where they had the huge Fight Night. Like the rest of the country, whether they will admit to it or not, I cringed during George Galloway's stint on Celebrity BB in 2006, and the racism row which engulfed the 2007  version, but haven't watched it much in the intervening years.

So what's hooked me in this time, especially now the show has moved from respectable Channel 4 to Richard Desmond's appalling Channel 5? Especially as I've heard of so few of the housemates. I was a bit concerned about what the experience might do to Kerry Katona, remembering how the less vulnerable Jade Goody had fared so badly in 2007. It does seem, though, that the producers are helping her along a bit. The task on the first night to act like a diva seemed to me to be a total set up aimed at endearing the audience to her.And gave her ,effectively, the choice of opponent in the first public vote.

Choosing Sally Bercow was probably a sensible move and Sally knows that the writing is probably on the wall for her. After all, she's up against someone who has attracted more magazine column inches than most people over the last decade or so, and a very pretty, if relatively personality-less model, Bobby Sabel. I confess I'd never heard of him until Thursday night, but I suspect he will attract the votes of many young men and women.

I have a lot of time for Sally Bercow. Not sure I'd have done the thing with the sheet, but it takes all sorts to make a world. She's an entertaining presence on Twitter. She may occasionally think it's all about her, but so do the rest of us from time to time. And she will always stand up for decent values - when Heather Mills was taking a kicking on Twitter, involving a lot of abuse about her disability, Sally was quick to defend her from it, retweeting this blog post. 

Her appearance on the show gives £100,000 to the charity Ambitious about Autism. Their fundraising income was less than £2 million last year according to their annual report to 31 July 2010 so that donation alone, if all else remains equal, gives them a 5% increase. It's a significant boost for them and will raise awareness of the things they do and potentially lead to greater donations.

I did wonder why she had chosen to give money to publicist Max Clifford. It's not that I don't like him, or anything - in fact, many years ago I sat next to him at a recording of some current affairs Sunday morning thing and he was very pleasant - but does he really deserve £20,000?  It's maybe easier to understand if you look at some of the appallingly sexist bile that's been thrown at her in the press.

The Fail makes a thing about how she makes her poor husband mop the floor. Well, actually, she said he does do that, not that she makes him. And why the hell shouldn't he do his fair share of the housework? The idea that it's embarrassing for a man to do housework belongs well and truly in the first half of the last century.

Apparently the Tories are frothing at the mouth, renewing their efforts to get rid of John Bercow as Speaker because of her antics. Well, let's be honest, they've always hated his guts and would happily chuck him out int he twinkling of an eye. They may well think that Sally should sit at home and bake cookies and smile sweetly,  and support her husband and only speak when spoken to, but do we really want to go back to the age when a woman was nothing more than her husband's chattel? Tories might, but the rest of us have a bit more respect for our independence and autonomy, thank you very much.

The Fail will no doubt continue to take every conversation she has out of context. It slagged her for talking about the art of "vajazzling" with another contestant. Actually, that conversation involved Amy, from the Only Way is Essex offering to do one for her, and her refusing. Hardly earth shattering.  And why shouldn't women discuss such things, anyway? It's not my cup of tea, but are they supposed to sit around talking about cross stitch and baking for goodness' sake?

I've even heard Liberal Democrats critically mutter about her self promotion. I mean, anybody in politics criticising someone else for putting themselves forward is a bit of a cheek.

Labour MP Kate Hoey has suggested that Sally Bercow should hand over her fee because she gets to live rent free in the Palace of Westminster. What a load of nonsense! I don't remember anyone ever proposing that Cherie Blair should hand over her earnings as a barrister to cover the cost of the flat that came with her husband's job.

Apparently, the Speaker himself is thinking of divorce  - although, if he's concerned about his wife's antics attracting press attention, you'd think he'd have stopped his mates blabbing to the Fail on Sunday. If that is indeed what happened.

While I might not agree with everything Sally Bercow says or does, the disproportionate disapproval heaped on her is way out of order and for that reason I feel the need to show some solidarity with her. She's sassy and sparky, and is by far the most intelligent, articulate and interesting person in that house. Putting yourself up for that much scrutiny takes some guts and there have been times where she's looked terrified, particularly when talking to My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding's Paddy Doherty. She still made the effort to actually get to know him and find out more about him.

The dilemma, of course, is that any action to save Sally means phoning up and donating money to Richard Desmond and his sexist empire which does so much to demean women. Even writing that makes me feel a bit queasy. Somebody on Facebook suggested that I could just view it as helping to pay off the national debt as some of it would go in tax, but it doesn't make me feel any better about the prospect.

There are times, though, when you just have to show a bit of support to someone taking unreasonable media criticism based on the idea that wives should be seen and not heard. That's why I want to see Sally Bercow defy expectations and stay in the house a bit longer.

A Fab Coincidence of Tweets

This is why I totally love Twitter.

There I was tonight, with emotions completely minced after watching the turmoil and trauma of the Coronation Street live 50th anniversary episode. In my mentions column, I saw this from Fabienne, who tweets as @gift_of_the_fab.

Seemingly connected, but not connected tweets.. @SallyBercow:http://bit.ly/eAp8Xv Followed byhttp://bit.ly/hun78V by @caronmlindsay

You can't but wonder what that was about.

Well, the first tweet was from Labour activist and serial tweeter Sally Bercow:

*whispers* Now off to @torybear's Christmas Party #yesIwasinvited#crosspartybuddies.

And the second was this from me:

Can't believe they let Sally go in there without a hard hat. What happened to health and safety law? Has it been suspended for the night?

I was, of course, referring to Sally Webster's mercy dash to sit with the dying Molly Dobbs in Corrie which, by the way, has to be be the best TV death ever, portrayed brilliantly.
Thank you, Fabienne, for making me laugh so much at the end of a day which has been, shall we say, emotionally taxing for all sorts of reasons not entirely unrelated to tuition fees.

A(nother) BBC Question Time Double Fail

Now that it's the school holidays, I've had the chance to stay up to join in the BBC Question Time tweetfest on a Thursday night cos I don't have to get up early.

You'll know that I've had my say on the lack of Liberal Democrats on the Question Time panel - even going so far as to have a geeks' special analysis at one point.

Last night was a spectacular fail in the variety of opinion on the panel. Basically we had two current Labour people, one ex Labour MP, a Tory cabinet minister and Nick Ferrari who almost makes the likes of Kelvin Mackenzie look liberal. So, 3 from a Labour/left point of view and 2 from the Tories/lunatic right wing tabloid fringe. Liberalism is a philosophy all on its own, nearly a quarter of people voted for it in May and deserves representation.

However, it's not that imbalance that made me most angry last night. I was surprised that nobody really paid much attention to the fact that the panel was 80% male. It's not an uncommon occurrence, either. The only woman was Sally Bercow and Twitter seemed to be very exercised that she was only there because of who her husband was. Maybe - although she is on of the Labour leading lights on Twitter in her own right.

Having said that, she talked more sense than the entire rest of the panel put together. Unusually for Labour people who aren't trying to sell books, she didn't seem to have swallowed a pint of vinegar and taken a bile pill before the show. She talked about how she favoured free speech and didn't think the vile Raoul Moat Facebook group should be taken down however much she disagreed with it. She sounded like a proper human being. I enjoy her tweets and would definitely recommend following her.

Question Time was bad enough but I gave up on BBC This Week - Ed Balls, Abi Titmuss and Kelvin Mackenzie is too much pain for a publicly funded organisation to inflict on anybody in one dose.

In which I know more about something in Sally Bercow's council ward than she does...

This afternoon I was quite amused to see this tweet from aspiring Labour Council candidate Sally Bercow. Sally is standing for the St James Ward for Westminster City Council. I can't quite work out from the tube map exactly how many Circle Line stations there are in the ward, but there are certainly some. It seems strange that she had no idea until today that the Circle Line no longer went round in a Circle.

Now I, living 500 miles away, knew that. Only because on the night of 12th December last year wonderful Lib Dem Voice contributor, blogger and sometime transport geek Helen Duffett went to the party held on the last train to go properly round in a circle and shared the experience with us on Twitter, but still.

It is a bit weird to discover that I know more about an issue affecting voters in Sally Bercow's chosen ward than she does. Especially when there have been problems with the new system, with people complaining of longer waits and fewer trains.

Before you all shout at me and say that the Council doesn't run the tube, I know that. It's Boris' bag, isn't it? Even so, I think if you're very publicly running for office, you kind of need to know the issues affecting the people you hope to represent.

Compare and contrast with Ed Fordham, Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Candidate in Hampstead and Kilburn, who is equally not going to be responsible for the tube, but knows how badly people are affected by changes in its services. Just as a postscript, I've known Ed for many years, ever since he lived in Stoke and effectively campaigned against Labour there, winning Council by-elections in dramatic style. He is brilliant - passionate, energetic and he gets things done. Check out this interview with him, if you want to know more. He would be an awesome MP and I hope he wins on Election Day.

Name the Speaker's Cat

When I was a little girl, we used to play a game called the Minister's Cat, where each person adds an adjective to describe the Minister's Cat and you'd have to remember the whole list. It is a game guaranteed to keep Anna amused for ages.

Today the focus is on the Speaker's Palace at Westminster which tomorrow welcomes a silver tabby to catch the mice that frighten the Speaker's Wife. This is getting more like a nursery rhyme every time I think about it. Sally Bercow has decided to name this poor unsuspecting animal by Twitter Poll. This is not a new way of doing things, although I doubt she'd get away with ignoring the results like Anna did.

I'm assuming they only chose names that they could live with to go on the shortlist, which is: Betty, Hansard, Harriet, Order or Tweetie.

Sally Bercow has tweeted today that

Mr B says he wld rather NOT be saddled with a cat called 'Order'. He is delighted that 'Hansard' has gained ground.

You have to hope she's not really that naive (and I doubt it very much), given that there are a fair number of Tories of the swivel eyed variety sticking like glue to her Twitter feed who are bound to do what they think she doesn't want.

Anyway, if you want to take part, join Twitter and vote here.

Sally Bercow is a very entertaining person to follow. Unlike some, she doesn't seem to mind criticism and interaction and she tends to think up amusing late night games. Last night it was making up names of pubs to go along with political parties. Anyone for a pint at the Pack and Rainger, the Referendum Arms, the Blair and Bush or the Moat and Belltower?