Other gems: "how to pick up virgins"; "how to pick up refined girls" and, if a ladyfriend has overstayed her welcome, "Don't move, I have just broken a test tube filled with the Aids virus." While a spokesman assures us that, "This article … in no way reflects the Speaker's views today," there's no mention of the fact that the wit isn't even AskMen caliber. Oh, and given that only yesterday his wife declared in the Daily Mail that "I was a binge-drinking ladette who downed two bottles of wine a day and had one-night stands," she's probably less flustered by the attention than the average political spouse.

Sex Tips From John Bercow, The Speaker Of The House Of Commons [Guardian]
Sally Bercow [Daily Mail]

Probably the former. Yes, families where both parents are present in the children's lives are more stable and ultimately create a better environment for children, but Grove is implying that parents need to not only be married for children to thrive, but the man needs to be working and providing ("responsibility") for his young while the woman stays home and cares for them. Why not promote a society where single mothers can provide for their children on their own? Grove says that the Conservative government will provide a maternity nurse service for families who need help during the first days after childbirth, but there is no mention of this service being available to single mothers (or fathers) who have a newborn. An emphasis is placed on the relationship between the father and mother, implying that they are together.

And what does Grove think of women's magazines? While he condemns lad mags' presentation of a "narrow conception of beauty and a shallow approach towards women," he praises women's magazines (and their publishers) for addressing their readers "in a mature and responsible fashion." So, being obsessed with materialism, being fearful of any beauty "imperfection," and constantly being reminded that the attention of men is necessary to live a happy lifestyle is "mature"? Has this dude ever looked at a women's magazine?

Lad Mags Linked To 'Social Ills' [BBC]
'Lads Mags' Condemned Over Images Of Women [Telegraph]
Poll" Do Lad Mags Make Men Feckless? [Guardian]

Dorries' calls America "The Abortion Capital of the World" because the rate of abortion per 1,000 women is 19.4 to Britain's 18.3 (Australia's is the highest in the world, at 20.0). The Daily Mail has a chart comparing abortion laws in 9 different countries; in it, the newspaper lists the "Upper Limit" of legally-acceptable abortions in the U.S. to be 26 weeks. But the reality is that getting an abortion after 12 weeks in many states is outright impossible.

According to NARAL, the pro-choice organization, "23 states have unconstitutional and unenforceable bans that could outlaw abortion as early as the 12th week of pregnancy, with no exception to protect a woman's health." In addition, "15 states have unconstitutional and unenforceable near-total criminal bans on abortion." Zoe Williams points out that "If you really wanted more abortions to take place earlier in the pregnancy, then you would work towards improving access to terminations on the NHS." Similarly, if Americans really wanted fewer late term abortions, they would provide better sex education in public schools and easy and cheap access to birth control. As we said earlier, 87% of counties don't even have access to an abortion provider. And anyway, Dorries is just picking on America because we're so loud and crass and angsty over the abortion issue. If she were really being accurate, she'd go after those abortion-happy Aussies, who "kill babies" even more than we do.

Britain Is 'Becoming The Abortion Capital Of The World' Claims Tory MP Fighting To Lower Legal Limit [Daily Mail]
Fact, Fiction And Foetuses [Guardian]
Abortion Bans After 12 Weeks [NARAL]
We Had Our Babies Under The 24-week Abortion Limit - And They All Survived [Daily Mail]

Earlier: Pro-Life Teen Says "I Feel Like We're All Survivors Of Abortion"

Okay, so some people seem to think that: the most interesting thing about Tory would be how she went from the PR i.e. "having drinks" side of the fashion business to the "no, you see, I'm a designer" part of the fashion business despite having no talent/experience/etc. — she went to Penn for chrissakes — but the answer to that, as you know, is that her financier ex-husband has wads and wads of money, and more to the point, Ralph Lauren totally paved the way for unoriginal arbiters of bland to make shitloads of money in fashion, and speaking of self-hating Jews Tory Burch baptized her children, though that is (duh) not part of the story.

Anyway, I have long thought that this thing they call "taste" which I really think is just a grown up version of high school "preppiness", whereby these icy blond gatekeepers read fashion magazines and observe trends but no one in the entire world of prep is allowed to participate in the trends until they say so, seemed like a pretty good racket, and it seems to be, because now she's on the cover of a magazine that got virtually no access to her, all because people are soooooooo curious what she's like. (A: you don't really find out!) This sentence pretty much sums it up:

Her tunics became the uniform for everyone from the Upper East Side lady who lunches to women across America who wanted to look like an Upper East Side lady who lunches.

Oh, and her fragrance is Vetiver, by Guerlain (is this also the name of a band? whatevs). It's a man's fragrance. RISKY.