NADINE DORRIES: The chilling reason why a huge number of young, white women who claim to be feminists are being seduced by Zack Polanski and the toxic Greens
Emily Clarkson, daughter of Jeremy, has a substantial Instagram following and often posts her political views online. Her job is, quite literally, influencing people.
So when she posted her displeasure at something the Gorton and Denton by-election Reform candidate Matt Goodwin once wrote – about taxing women who choose to be child-free – her followers probably took note.
They possibly even believed it was Reform party policy, which, of course, it wasn’t (and I think I can safely say never would be).
Emily argues her point from a feminist perspective very well. Her words and her presentation are delivered with a punch. But it is often from a very narrow viewpoint because, well, that’s the nature – and drawback – of a bite-sized social media post.
And, unlike the mainstream media, Emily and her fellow influencers are under no obligation to provide balance or context. They don’t have to offer any other point of view or perspective, other than their own.
However, the power that these young feminist influencers wield on social media is extraordinary because it is where so many of their peers head for news content and debate.
We saw it in Gorton and Denton. One of the largest groups to vote for the winning Green Party candidate, Hannah Spencer, was young, white, feminist women who themselves posted on social media and who are undoubtedly influenced by what they read and heard on social media sites.
For millions of us, the Greens have long been the party for the environment with a raft of well-meaning but impractical policies.
Hannah Spencer and Green leader Zack Polanski pose for a selfie outside Parliament
Well, no more, as we discovered in this by-election: what the Greens want today are open borders; to legalise all drugs including heroin and crack cocaine; to decriminalise prostitution and make pornography more accessible. The party is ardently pro-Palestine and viscerally opposed to Israel.
Still impractical and now downright dangerous, but the Green Party is attractive to many young women.
But what really frazzles my brain is that these young, white feminists were voting for a party that, at the weekend, has been unequivocal in its support for a regime that has few equals in its oppression of, and cruelty towards, women.
A regime that punishes women for simply walking in the street with their hair uncovered.
A regime which, as human rights organisations have discovered, orders women to be raped by prison guards the night before they are executed to ensure that they are no longer virgins and so denied entrance to paradise.
A regime that slaughtered around 30,000 of its own people – mainly young men and women – who took to the streets in January to protest at the misery of life under the corrupt and incompetent rule of the mullahs.
The leader of the Green Party, Zack Polanski, described the US and Israel as ‘rogue states’ for the strikes on Iran that removed Ayatollah Khamenei and his cronies. His deputy, Mothin Ali, attended a rally in London on Saturday in support of the evil regime, while the Greens' new spin doctor, Abi Wilkinson, denies that Jewish women were raped in the October 7 attacks by Hamas.
Emily Clarkson, with her father Jeremy, posted her displeasure at something the Gorton and Denton by-election Reform candidate Matt Goodwin once wrote
Why would any sane young, white, feminist woman vote for a party that harbours such people and such reprehensible views?
Sadly, I think the explanation is only too clear. What we are witnessing, according to academics and scientists studying the phenomenon, across the globe is the ‘decoupling of genders on social media’ – and, as a result, the way men and women vote.
Men engage with sports, betting and news sites. Women are hitting Instagram, celebrity, motherhood, lifestyle and wellness. And then the algorithms do their stuff, feeding and reinforcing particular viewpoints, with men moving towards the Right and women increasingly to parties that embrace Left-wing issues.
Sadly, what we saw in last week’s election may be a sign of things to come – the power of the smartphone and social media in shaping our politics. The problem is that what is informing the debate and influencing the outcome is largely superficial content, out of context and designed to provoke and whip up outrage, to encourage the clicks and likes which monetise the influencer.
There is only one way to counteract the deeply divisive politics of the Greens and that is for Labour to get its act together. Its MPs need to get behind Starmer and start to do better – and fast.
The death of a serious political party is only acceptable when there is a credible alternative. On the Right, there is Reform. On the Left, if Labour’s failure allows the Greens to become a real force in British politics we really are doomed.
Yes, Labour needs to get a grip if it is to see off the Green Menace – but watching Keir Starmer address the nation like a traumatised woodentop after Trump took out Ayatollah Khamenei makes me despair.
His dithering over backing the strikes on Iran and eventual U-turn on allowing the US to use UK military bases made him – and us as a nation – look weak.
Being a leader means being able to rise to the challenge of making quick decisions backed by conviction and belief. He fails every single time.
Leave Kelly alone to grieve in peace
At the weekend, Kelly Osbourne attended the Brit awards with her mother Sharon
Kelly Osbourne has lashed out at those who criticised her appearance at the Brit Awards at the weekend. She and her mother Sharon accepted the Lifetime Achievement gong on behalf of her late father, Ozzy.
There’s no ignoring the fact that Kelly, 41, has lost a dramatic amount of weight. She looks gaunt, frail even. However, she is grieving the loss of her dad and going through what she describes as the ‘hardest time of my life’.
Can’t people just back off and leave her to grieve? It hits us all differently and the one thing – the only thing – we know that helps in those early days is space and time. That’s what Kelly needs.
I heard last month that the independent school my daughters attended when we lived in Cheshire, Alderley Edge School for Girls, is to close in July. It can no longer balance the books.
Labour’s punishing imposition of 20 per cent VAT on school fees and the increase in employer National Insurance contributions has been the death knell for Alderley Edge and more than 100 other independent schools.
That’s the destructive power of the politics of envy.
It’s a tragedy for the education sector and for the pupils whose studies will be disrupted in the middle of GCSEs and A-levels. Not that it will bother the Cabinet’s foremost class warrior, Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson.
We’ve endured the coldest January I can recall for years and the greyest, wettest February.
But now we are emerging into a balmy, sunny March and it will never be dark before 6pm until the end of October. Rejoice – we made it!
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