Penny Mordaunt Seeks Out Her Prime Directive

May 14, 2023 Eleanor Scott

The Coronation is over, and one of my abiding memories is Penny Mordaunt cos-playing Game of Thrones while the beautiful 6th century Augustine gospels were relegated to bit-part status. I watched a fair bit of the Coronation in the end, switching from BBC to ITV when Huw Edwards kept talking over one of the few things that was truly majestic, the music.

Social media was unforgiving and occasionally bonkers in its comments about Penny Mordaunt’s ability to walk, hold a sword, and wear and hat & frock combo at the same time, in her ceremonial role of Lord High Embellisher of the Pointy Thing. Views ranged from the drooling adoration of parliamentarian stans to the iconoclastic take-downs of British satirical culture.

Personally, I’d like to know how many thousands of pounds her custom-made fancy dress costume cost and who’s paying for it - I’m presuming it’s being claimed for on expenses, so I’m guessing that’ll be the taxpayer.

Penny Mordaunt - All At Sea With Liz Truss

August 21, 2022 Eleanor Scott

**Penny Mordaunt twins up with Navy-slasher Liz Truss** (image from Wiki Commons, originally BBC)

I remain baffled by the popularity of Penny Mordaunt. Here she is still supporting Liz Truss, while Liz Truss is known to have been vehemently against all those things that Mordaunt supposedly holds dear, like investing in the Royal Navy and education.

The 'Support of Penny Mordaunt'? I'd Rather Trust a Fifth Columnist

August 4, 2022 Eleanor Scott

Who does Truss trust? Has Mordaunt done enough by coming out in ‘support’ of the clear race favourite to have wheedled her way onto the list of future secretaries of state and ministers? Could Mordaunt - god forbid - be re-appointed as Minister for Women and Equalities, as she possibly desires?

If Liz Truss has any political and common sense left at all, after a deranged start to the Conservative leadership contest, her response to Mordaunt’s offer of ‘support’ will be, ‘thanks, but no thanks, now feck off’.

The Unease Around Penny Mordaunt: A Mumsnet Explainer

July 13, 2022 Eleanor Scott

At the time of writing, a #PinnochioPenny is trending on Twitter, and she’s getting an absolute pasting on one of the biggest talk board websites in the world, Mumsnet. To understand this, it’s worth looking at a bit of the history involved.

Penny Mordaunt is most famous on MN for her disastrous webchat in 2019, where she badly fucked up her answers to questions about (a) women, (b) children, and (c) our exit from the EU. So, that’s most of the population and current politics of the UK she couldn’t deal with, then.

Penny Mordaunt, Defence Secretary - Has Theresa May Replaced One Gaffe-Prone 'Liar' with Another?

May 2, 2019 Eleanor Scott

Mordaunt on the Andrew Marr show, as a Defence Minister - she is now elevated to Secretary of State

Penny Mordaunt, MP for Portsmouth North, is now the Secretary of State for Defence, a position she arrived at in circumstances where lying is apparently A Very Bad Thing. I was thus a little perturbed to read the view from The Guardian that ‘Mordaunt has avoided any major gaffes since joining the cabinet’. On a day of assessing the importance of truth & lies, I would say to The Guardian: well, that’s just not true. Her Mumsnet webchat just 7 weeks ago to celebrate International Women’s Day was an unmitigated disaster, whereby Mordaunt exposed herself as being hopelessly unable to define what a woman is, incapable of understanding children’s safeguarding issues, and flippant enough to dig herself an even deeper hole over the Turkey veto ‘lies’.

Penny Mordaunt, THAT Mumsnet Webchat, And A Brewing Children’s Safeguarding Scandal

April 8, 2019 Eleanor Scott

*Penny Mordaunt - Erm, What Was The Question?*

Today The Times published a piece of investigative journalism that follows on from long-standing safeguarding concerns around children. The service under scrutiny at the Tavistock reacted by rejecting the claims. This, however, is potentially a child safeguarding crisis in the making. One might now ask, is this Government up to the job of dealing with the brewing scandal? Last year we learned that Penny Mordaunt MP, in her role as Minister for Women & Equalities, had initiated an inquiry into the extremely large increase in the number of children presenting as wanting to change gender. What’s happened to her inquiry? These matters are too important for the services involved to be left to investigate themselves.

Did Mumsnet Catch Out Penny Mordaunt Over Turkey 'Lies'?

March 16, 2019 Eleanor Scott

Penny Mordaunt official portrait (wiki commons)

In the past week Penny Mordaunt MP, Secretary of State for International Development and Minister for Women & Equalities and former defence minister, performed (in the opinion of many Mumsnetters) one of the most abysmal Mumsnet webchats ever, now held in perpetuity in the influential website’s digital annals. (I wrote about it here.) The focus of the ensuing disappointment and ire has understandably been on her apparent disregard for sex-based protections and rights for women, and the safeguardng of children of both sexes, and her odd comments about the meaning of ‘mother’. Additionally there remains another nugget buried deep in the motherlode of Mordaunt’s thought-mine of doom, which goes to the heart of her credibility.

Did Mumsnet Just Hand Penny Mordaunt Her Arse?

March 14, 2019 Eleanor Scott

Penny Mordaunt MP - image from her website

It takes a certain set of tools to turn a golden opportunity to engage with hundreds of thousands of women on International Women’s Day into an unmitigated PR disaster, and Penny Mordaunt MP has somehow managed to pull it off. I’ve met Penny Mordaunt a few times in Portsmouth over the years while I was on Council-related business, and she has always seemed perfectly likeable and pleasant. But future Prime Minister material? Not unless courting disaster is now seen as prerequisite rather than unfortunate happenstance. This story involves a ‘webchat’ which followed on from a conversation between Penny Mordaunt MP, Secretary of State for International Development and Minister for Women & Equalities, and Justine Roberts CBE, co-founder of the hugely popular and influential website Mumsnet.

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