The Pike Award

I've created a special award this week - The Pike Award. Named in honour of Private Pike of Dads Army fame. I've created it for someone whom I feel is deserving of such an award for being a particularly stupid boy.

Step forward Ed Milliband.

According the press, Ed has made it clear that if he is PM he will create a Secretary of State for Women

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2602106/Id-Secretary-State-Women-Labour-won-election-says-Miliband.html

Why exactly? Well apparently it's part due to the Maria Miller issue and the reduced status of her successor.

For me Ed wins the award for a whole host of reasons, but at the heart if this, like Pike, he has as my late Grandmother's neighbour used to say,

"Opened his mouth and let the wind blow his tongue about".

Such is the lack of thinking that has gone into this announcement. Such an idea will solve nothing. He's not saying it, because he believes women need someone to advance their cause. He's saying it for his own party's gain at the ballot box. Likewise having had a similar role in government in the form of Miller, didn't really do much for women either. We got Miller, who by the stories we have seen this week could be argued by some to have only been advancing the cause of one woman - herself.

I could go on, but I think readers are intelligent and are probably shooting their own holes in Ed's idea. In short, it's not the absence of women in cabinet or in politics, it's the absence of honourable people in public service that's the issue.

I shouldn't be surprised though. Ed's got form for this sort of thing. We saw this right back when he announced he was running for Leader and he have his launch speech. It followed a similar pattern. It was one of his walk around the stage without a script type speeches. He was talking about this and about that and part way through there was a sudden outburst of we're going to do something for women too! You got the impression from there on in, he was thinking of things off the top of his head, with no thought or censorship of what made it into the atmosphere. All he was doing was making sure he went through his mental checklist of right on causes to seem all things to all people to gather as many votes as possible and it would seem he continues in that vein.

Take a bow Ed Milliband , winner of The Pike Award. Don't worry. We won't need a speech - we couldn't bear it.