Politics, wives, husbands etc.

It's interesting following Sally Bercow on Twitter. Sally's twitter bio is simple and tells you everything you need to know; Labour activist, does the odd bit of broadcasting & writing, mum of 3. Doesn't answer to Mrs Speaker.

She happens to be the wife of John Bercow, who's currently the Speaker of the House of Commons (in the UK parliament). He's also the Conservative MP for Buckingham, but of course currently tied by the impartiality of the Speaker's chair.

Sally doesn't answer to Mrs Speaker, which sends out a clear message; she's married to a man, but isn't married to his position, or the professional limitations of his position (such as impartiality). So she's vocally, fiercely Labour, and outspoken about her past life (including alcoholism and one night stands). She's feminist, regularly refers to the right-wing paper The Daily Mail as The Daily Fail or The Fail, and comes out against Tory policies.

Thanks to all of these facts, she's got haters. She typically refers to them as Fail readers or Tory trolls, which a lot of them no doubt are, but some are just angry that she exists. That she's a woman who benefits from her husband's job in terms of publicity but isn't limited by it, and doesn't feel like she needs to represent him in any way shape or form, or shut up about her views. She calls out her haters on it, regularly, and rightly calls them misogynist.

( gets a bit lengthy. )