Caroline Flint
Recently, when I asked my son if he'd ever come across the ravishing Labour MP Caroline Flint, he doubted if what I'd said could be true. Not aware of Ms Flint, he said she's probably too old, and in any case it's impossible for a politician to be physically attractive.
It's true there aren't too many sexy female politicians in Britain, at least in the House of Commons (I haven't studied the Lords), but it's not true that Caroline Flint isn't attractive (inset), nor that, by definition, sexiness and politics are mutually exclusive. As for age, she was born in September 1961, which makes her 46, about three years younger than Siân Lloyd, the Welsh weather girl and ITV1 Wales presenter who won the 2007 UK (female) Rear of the Year competition saying "50 is the new 30".
Member of Parliament for Don Valley in Northern England, Caroline became Minister of State for Employment and Welfare Reform in 2007 (but see "congratulations" below) and is also Minister for Yorkshire and the Humber. Previously, as Minister for Public Health, she'd overseen the government's programmes concerning the health and wellbeing of the British nation, including crackdowns on naughty pleasures like excessive drinking, smoking, and eating too many chips.
True, that's not very sexy, but on the other hand she's apparently a member of the Division Belles, a tap dancing troupe. And on Sky News political editor Adam Boulton's blog, Caroline is 'perennial favourite' in an annual consultation process to select the 'Top 10 Most Fanciable MPs'. There's more. According to a Daily Mail article referring to David Cameron axing a 'sexiest MP' debate from his website blog, flattering references were made to Caroline Flint's physical attributes. Then on Radio Five Live's Worricker Political Awards asking for nominations in the category 'Sexiest Female', the winner was lovely Caroline Flint.
In a blog entry "Caroline Flint – an object of someone's desire?" at Oxford Agenda, the author has included and emphasized searchable keywords and key phrases such as, for example, "naked", "sex lives", and "shapely legs" (all with decent meanings, which is presumably why "cleavage" was omitted) to see how many people search the web for "Caroline Flint" together with the 'sexy' bits. Those kinds of searches, performed pretty regularly it seems, are bound to result in nothing but disappointment. My only observation so far is that Siân easily outstrips younger Caroline in the futile hunt for erotic pictures.
More authoritarian laws 'for our own good'
Once dubbed 'supernanny' by Times Online, Caroline Flint's ministerial work is helping to shape modern Britain into an increasingly suffocated society. Whilst I agree that "knowledge is power and knowing how to make the right choices for yourself is how you get the best out of life," a succession of authoritarian laws enacted 'for our own good' are making life in this country ever more oppressive.
The same can be said when over-zealous middle managers and public officers, spurred on by Health & Safety laws, make 'risk assessments' on anything that moves, creeping up on us and gradually squeezing the fun out of many of our traditional pleasures like village carnivals and bonfires. As Simon Jenkins wrote on Guardian Unlimited, "only a hair's breadth separates the nanny state from the police state."
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies… those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience." (C S Lewis)
Sexy weather girls like Siân Lloyd have joined the nannies, advising us to 'wrap up well' in 'nasty' weather and insisting that we drive extra carefully in 'treacherous' conditions. Instead of treating us as children and promoting a 'national opinion' on types of weather being good or bad for us, they should just state the meteorological facts and let us take responsibility for our own personal "choices".
Reported here is a 2006 Government initiative aimed at encouraging greater condom use in which Caroline is quoted as saying that carrying and using a condom among the sexually active in the 18-24 age group should be "as familiar as carrying a mobile phone, lipstick or putting on a seat-belt," which seems to hint that having sex with someone can be as casual an act as a phone call or a drive to the local shop.
This isn't really providing factual information to help young people make "choices" (they already know about condoms) – it's endorsing a lifestyle that contradicts Labour's recent commitment to promote and strengthen marriage as the 'surest' and 'most stable' way of raising children. Read more about the mass of inconsistencies in New Labour's family values on Socialist Women.
See, also, the delectable Ms Flint on YouTube chatting about the perils of chips and the 24% level of obesity in Slough (when my son, 28, began to watch the video, he announced "you're right, she's fit").
Fit enough to be an artist's model: see Caroline Flint's portrait as it would have been painted by Leonardo da Vinci.
Notwithstanding, let's wish Caroline every success in her ministerial positions and the very best for the future. Her devotion to our welfare will undoubtedly continue to benefit many families and young people, and (hopefully) anyone struggling to get a foot on the housing ladder. I see she lists foreign affairs amongst her particular policy interests, so if the equally youthful MP David Miliband (the thinking Labour woman's crumpet) were to move on from his own ministerial job, Caroline Flint might make a pretty effective Foreign Secretary [Oct. 08: one step closer - she's now Minister of State for Europe at the Foreign Office].
Digressing from Caroline Flint…
Siân Lloyd's winning bum can be viewed here, at least in outline inside her jeans. Presumably the contestants weren't posing nude when the judges made their inspections in the Dorchester Hotel. Naked bums might have made the contest more fair because tight jeans can help to shape the wearer's buttocks, like breasts in a bra. Maybe the best bum contest should be renamed 'Rear Of The Year In Tight Pants'.
Vaguely related: Butch Ingham (school camps and learning latin in the days before risk assessments).
[...] Taylor picked up on this in a post on his attractive web site. He shares my views on creeping state control – "a succession of authoritarian laws enacted [...]
Congratulations are in order. It's 2008 and Caroline is still the girl, having been voted Sexiest Female Politician of 2007 in Ian Dale's End of Year Awards poll 'Sex, Hate & Gaffes' in which 2,300 voters took part. There were some dissenting voices, but beauty is in the eye of at least 26% of beholders.
Perhaps more importantly, Britain's comeliest MP has this very day been promoted to Minister of State for Housing and Planning at the Department for Communities and Local Government, bringing much-needed aesthetic appeal to meetings of the British Cabinet. Her elevation is part of Gordon Brown's government reshuffle, following Peter Hain's resignation as Secretary of State for Work and Pensions.
As a Conservative, I don't think much of Caroline Flint's policies, but as a middle aged man, I can appreciate her physical attributes! There are some seriously ugly MPs in the house, but the law of averages says there has to be a few babes. I am sure there are many male MPs who appeal to the ladies on a purely superficial level also. By the way, if her birthday is in September, then she's only 46.
On average, you might expect a few babes (and studs) in the House of Commons, but my son's reaction to the original question suggests that politicians tend to be regarded as less physically attractive than the population at large.
True, Ms Flint is only 46 (corrected, thanks).
Patrick, I rather suspect your son's view is borne of the growing contempt the public has for our elected politicians. How can a class of people who are perceived to be greedy, grubby and corrupt be physically attractive? It is much easier to think of such people as wart ridden and hideous!
Younger people equate beauty with being nice. Therefore if someone is not considered nice, they can't be beautiful/handsome.
Many men are attracted to models even though said models often have nothing but sawdust between their ears!! It is only as we get older that we appreciate the adage of beauty being skin deep. That's what I keep telling people anyway!
This Caroline Flint woman must live on another planet. Barely five minutes in her new job, she had started to blab with her mouth wide open about issues she knows nothing about.
Goes to show the calibre of people we now have in Government. All corrupt and dodgy people from top to bottom.
Patrick
Check out the picture of Caroline Flint arriving at Downing Street this morning (the Daily Mail web site has it). No further comment required
As from October 3rd, 2008, comely MP Caroline Flint is Minister of State (Europe) at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. She can still attend Cabinet when her Ministerial responsibilities are on the agenda. Here she is on YouTube addressing the recent Labour Party Conference (as, formerly, the Minister of State for Housing and Planning).
Alas, I don't think we will be seeing quite so much of her now! And after the next General Election it will be goodbye to all of the remaining Blair babes!
Goodbye to Labour you mean? I'm not so sure. Mandelson is back, and if Gordon gets the Brownie points for seeing us through these rough times… who knows? Darling gets the boot then D. Miliband gets Chancellor and the lovely Mona Flinta gets the Foreign Office. At that point Mandelson will be the Home Secretary.
Patrick, Gordon Brown's days as PM were already numbered. Now that number is even smaller. This is such a huge error of judgement – even bigger than his failure to go to the polls last year when undoubtedly he would have won.
I have no doubt that Mandleson’s return to the Cabinet will increase the faction fighting, not reduce it, and will consign Labour to defeat on the scale suffered by the Canadian Conservatives in 1993. Oh happy days!
Then will there be any beautiful female Tory MPs in the next Government? Can we have some gorgeous Right-Wing Cabinet Ministers please?
One of my Labour supporting friends has taken a shine to Nadine Dorries but I don't think she's in the same league as the Flintmistress.
i am her ex tunisian husband father of her two kids ;
please stop your comments about a personn you do not know what it 's turning in her brain;
Caroline Flint, interviewed in today's Observer Woman, says media attention on her looks is insulting "when it gets in the way of the other things I hope to contribute." But she shouldn't complain, because at the top of the article is a photo of her posing on a sofa, all made up and wearing a sexy red dress! What does she expect?
I think that Caroline is hughly talented, and effcetive. i would support her to be in senior positions in Government. as far as her looks are concerned. I think everyone should use every benefit they hav. She is beautiful, stunning, clever, honest, principlaed and I think she is wonderful.
In fact if caroline wouldhave dinner with meit would make my year.
wish her all the best 4 the next general election;
please go easy with her she do not deserve all this ;