In these media managed days of political spin and talking points and staying on message it’s always noteworthy when someone looks in their damn-bag and realises that no, they have none to give.
And thus: take a bow Jess Phillips, Labour MP for Birmingham Yardley, for giving a speech which immediately went viral for being hilarious and passionate.
Which shouldn’t be that high a bar to clear, you’d think, but that’s how politics works.
Labour MP Jess Phillips treats the Commons to an incredible speech pic.twitter.com/IwXaHDH6jl
— The Independent (@Independent) January 30, 2019
And first up: like all great comedy it’s making a solid point – that the value of someone’s contribution and intellect isn’t a factor of how much they earn, no matter how much wealthy people like to think it means they’re smarter and better than those plebs whining about being robbed of their penalty rates.
This was in response to a motion to classify all people earning under £30,000 as “unskilled”, which would take in (among others) teachers, nurses and many of the skilled trades. So a bit goddamn judgey, in other words.
But the killer is clearly “I have definitely met some very rich people who earn huge amounts of money and who I would not trust to hold my pint if I had to go and vote while in the bar.”
That said, “I thought I’d met posh people before I came [to parliament], but turns out I just met people who eat olives” is also a t-shirt worthy quip.
And thus, friends, the pub test is dead. Now it’s “would I trust X to hold my pint?” And hoo boy, that’s a bar a lot of today’s pollies wouldn’t clear. Heck, by the looks of a lot of them, they’ve been snaking drinks for most of their career.
In any case, can we start a crowdfund to bring Phillips down here, and install her as PM? She seems to know a thing or two.