Are the Houses of Parliament institutionally sexist?
Barbara Fletcher, Newcastle No. But the constituent members are. The structure is not sexist, but the MPs – like most men – are. When women are speaking in the Chamber it’s always much noisier. But even when I first arrived, I had good friends so I didn’t engage with men who were less amenable and I didn’t have very many negative experiences. We know you disliked having to stay on-message at all times when in front-line politics. How many lies – little ones and big ones – do you reckon you told during your time at Westminster? Ben Ross, by e-mail Nothing direct, only omissions. That’s how I got round it. I toed the line. The trouble I had with this was over set speeches in Northern Ireland. I don’t do well with set speeches. I used to ad-lib around the structure given to me at dinners and things like that. But when I was doing something formal in relation to specifics in the peace process, I read the brief word for word because that was the only way you could be sure you hadn’t said an
