A piece published on the website of Justice for Men & Boys (and the women who love them), the political party of which I’m the chairman, in September 2018:

At last, some hilarious comedy on the BBC, albeit unplanned. Thank goodness for live television, otherwise we’d never have seen this gem.

Politics Live is the female-dominated successor to Daily Politics. Yesterday a BBC TV team was reporting from the Labour party conference, and needless to say much of the programme was occupied by the news of John McDonnell’s statement that the next party leader “must” be a woman. Some genius working for Politics Live came up with the idea of talking to conference attendees, asking them to select one cupcake from a selection, each bearing the images of one of the following – Rebecca Long-Bailey, Emily Thornberry, and Angela Rayner. People with a BBC licence can watch the exchange covered by this blog piece, on iPlayer, from 35:10, here.

The following conversation took place outside the Momentum stand, with a (female) interviewer and one of two young black women, who cites three black MPs in succession:

Interviewer: “Hi guys! We’re just asking people – it’s a very scientific survey – if the next leader is going to be a woman, which of these three candidates would you go far? (Two assistants displayed the range of cupcakes) You can have Emily Thornberry, Angela Rayner, or Rebecca Long-Bailey.

Woman: “Diane Abbott“.

Interviewer: “Oh, we don’t have Diane on a cake…”.

Woman: “Dawn Butler“.

Interviewer (starting to get visibly exasperated): “Yeah, we have limited cake options…”.

Woman: “Marsha de Cordova“.

Priceless. Simply priceless. A strong candidate for a Labour all-women shortlist, we feel.

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