Killjoy Woz Ere

‘THERE is nothing so wrong with this dear country of ours that banning fox-hunting and outlawing the Page 3 girl wouldn’t solve.

It should have been you, Clare

With the former making slow, but inexorable, progress in its journey to the statute book, it was high time for Clare Short to turn her attention to the latter.

And so she did, the MP telling a Westminster lunch that she wanted ‘to take pornography out of the press’.

‘I’d love to ban it,’ she said. ‘It degrades women and our country.’

But the Sun’s stunnas won’t put their tops on without a fight, launching a nationwide petition ‘to make sure one of Britain’s great traditions remains’.

Nicola McLean, one of an army of Page 3 girls who yesterday descended in a Sun bus on Ms Short’s house, offered her considered opinion.

‘It’s pathetic of her,’ she said, ‘to jump up and down about what is essentially a pair of boobs – after all, half the population have them.

‘Even Clare has boobs, but obviously she’s not proud of them like we are of ours.’

As if the image of Clare Short jumping up and down with her boobs hanging out wasn’t enough to test even the hardiest constitution, the Sun gives its readers’ imaginations a helping hand, mocking up a picture of the member for Birmingham Ladywood as she might look as a Page 3 girl.

And, all of a sudden, the reason behind her long-running and deep-seated antipathy to Page 3 girls becomes clear.

Picture the scene: it’s 1974 and a wide-eyed 28-year-old from Birmingham skips happily into the Fleet Street offices of the Sun, lacy lingerie in her hand and dreams of making history in her head.

But it is Jilly Johnson who is chosen to be the first Page 3 girl – and an embittered 28-year-old from Birmingham leaves, vowing to become an MP and dedicate the rest of her life to fighting such injustice wherever she should encounter it.’

Posted: 15th, January 2004 | In: Tabloids Comment | TrackBack | Permalink