Have you ever voted for someone because you liked their partner? No? Me either.
Which is why it’s beyond me why Samantha Cameron, Sarah Brown and Miriam Gonzalez Durantez (Mrs Clegg) are being touted as the ‘secret weapons’ of the main political party leaders.
Personally I’m getting fed up with the way they’ve decided that we can be manipulated into voting for the men if we identify with their wives and see more of the 'real men' they're married to. It's beyond patronising. Their husbands and their colleagues know mums are important in this election – but for the life of them they can’t work out how to make us vote for them.
I don’t care how messy the party leaders are at home, or how devoted they are to their families. Because it’s still policies that matter, not taste in music or their lack of domesticity. The idea we would vote for any of the three main political party leaders because we identify with their partners is laughably quaint and woefully misguided. It’s like saying President Obama was elected because his wife wore some rather stylish wrap dresses.
Unless they’re putting something through on expenses we should know about, personally I’d prefer it if MPs’ partners stayed in the background. They’re trying to distract us from the real issues with smoke and mirrors at the moment. They forget we’re smarter than that.
written by Liz Jarvis