The Harm of Harriet Harman

Harriet Harman is a fairly typical British Labour politician. She comes from a wealthy, even aristocratic, background and was sent to St. Pauls Girls School- a private school- before studying politics at York University and joining a pressure group. She married a Labour activist- Jack Dromey- who she met on the picket line at Grunwick, but has maintained her feminist credentials in small things, such as retaining her maiden name, but betraying her Socialist credentials in large things: by sending her children to grant maintained and grammar schools, while publicly opposing the access to these institutions by others. So far, so unsurprisingly hypocritical.

As a minister she was reliably wrong on most issues: she supported keeping MPs expenses secret, she supported the Iraq war, she believes that undemocratic quotas are the best way to promote women and sexual minorities- as though they should be treated in the same way. All of this nonsense has been promoted with a straight face as a "fairness agenda". She has had her brushes with the law- speeding, and has been associated with questionable financial dealings concerning her bid for the Labour Deputy Leadership. Her husband's stewardship of Labour Party finances as Party Treasurer has also been attacked.

So far, so mediocre and slightly sleazy.

So what is it about this rather foolish, rather arrogant and rather mediocre politician that annoys so very many people in the UK?

Over the past few weeks we have seen here being abusive and disrespectful of other political figures: calling Danny Alexander a "Ginger Rodent" is not exactly the kind of right-on PC that she demands from other people. We have also seen her demonstrating the sense of entitlement and arrogance that should ultimately eliminate Labour as a political force.

By praising foreign people on benefits who send a proportion of their income back to their home countries to support their families as "heroes", she demonstrates a total ignorance of the justified anger of the British people towards a bloated welfare state that can not support this abuse. Benefits are paid by the taxpayer to provide minimum support for the needy in this country. The British tax payer already supports those in need overseas through the international development aid budget. If we are supporting the "third world" through our benefit system too, then sooner or later the system will collapse. Now, don't get me wrong here, I am perfectly happy for people in the UK to support their families overseas- with money they have earned themselves. However it is profoundly unreasonable to expect the British tax payer to be asked to do the same thing. Labour, however, would not allow foreigners who came to the UK irregularly, to work: they insisted that they should take benefits and not join the workforce.

Only a politician who has no understanding about how money is earned and wealth is created could say something so foolish. As usual, in her invincible ignorance and determined arrogance Harriet Harman shows that her view of the state is that it is a giant Santa Claus that can give every good child, and quite a few of the bad ones, a lot of sweeties whether they deserve them or not, or even whether they need them or not.

It is precisely this view of the state that has eroded British competitiveness and undermined fairness. She is not against discrimination at all- in fact she insists on it, provided it suits her social and political agenda. Her shallow vision of feminism was condemned by Erin Pizzey as a "staggering attack on men and their role in modern life".

Relevant Information: this self-regarding, poisonous, mediocrity is the Deputy Leader of the Labour Party.