Ruth Kelly
THE promotion of Ruth Kelly to education secretary has led to a bout of backstabbing by female colleagues on Labour’s back benches.
After three days of tributes to the 36-year-old mother of four, the claws are out over her rapid rise to such a big spending department.
Women MPs were left railing when Kelly leapfrogged more experienced and “sisterly” colleagues in a cabinet reshuffle following David Blunkett’s resignation.
Some of the “Blair babes” are disappointed that despite being a working mum she has not been more forthright about women’s issues. “How has she managed to get so far when she’s had so much maternity leave?” asked one female colleague.
A Roman Catholic, Kelly opposes abortion and euthanasia and once told Tony Blair that she could never support stem cell research. Some MPs fear her religion may cloud her judgment on issues such as sex education. She was last week excused the three-line whip vote on living wills.
She reportedly attends meetings of a secretive ultra-conservative Catholic group, Opus Dei, which features in the best-selling thriller The Da Vinci Code. [Source]
The attitudes in this article are just ridiculous. liberals have often fought for maternity leave paid for by the employer and yet if someone actually requires the use of maternity leave (especially more than once) they are attacked. But the silliest is the Opus Dei reference (which got qualified by two verbs). Surprisingly they didn't link her to any albino assassins (maybe that would explain her rapid rise). This also demonstrated the increasing trend here and in Europe that being a Catholic that follows Church teaching is immediately seen as a problem. Judge Prior here in the U.S. and Rocco Buttiglione the rejected EU commissioner had committed the sin of being Catholic and actually said things that were consistent with Church teaching. For the secular elite religious belief is fine just as long as it doesn't get in the way of modern secular dogmas.
Known as 
"Some MPs fear her religion may cloud her judgment on issues such as sex education."
Like their religious beliefs (i.e. secular fundamentalism) don't cloud their judgement!
Apparently it's okay to let any book influence the way you think about things except for that dastardly volume written by the Holy Spirit.
>>"Apparently it's okay to let any book influence >>the way you think about things except for that >>dastardly volume written by the Holy Spirit."
Seems a good way to run things to me
"Are you now, or have you ever been, a member of Opus Dei?"
"I hold in my hand a list..."
I think that if Ruth Kelly is going to be shaping the way tens of thousands of minds across the nation are going to be educated then we should absolutely know whether she's likely to be influenced by her own beliefs. I don't give a hoot if she's religious so long as she doesn't let it interfere or with the way she formulates policy.
While she may be religious and ultra conservative, the rest of this country ~ I sincerely believe ~ is not. This is a very secular country, and efforts to impose an agenda upon it, shaped by an ultra-relgious organisation, should not go unquestioned.
Comparing this level of questioning with Joe McCarthy's witch hunt is just ludicrous. This is closer to being the equivalent of someone asking Joe McCarthy if HIS views are potentially blinkered and likely to be affecting his ability to do his job.
Oh, and "secretive" and "ultra conservative" are adjectives, not verbs.
And another thing.. As a working woman, I absolutely believe that maternity leave is imperative. I absolutely believe in paternity leave, as well. However, if I were to take four years (or however long) out of my career - especially a career as young as Ms Kelly's is, bearing in mind she IS only 36 - I would hardly expect to be leapfrogging others who are (as the article points out and you gloss over) older and far more experienced than I am.
That's not having a dig at maternity leave or people who use it - that's simply pointing out that there are other, more qualified people out there who could have done this job without the controversy.