The crying shame of two very little women

MY CHAMPAGNE GLASS IS ALWAYS HALF FULL

- VIRGINIA BLACKBURN

OVER the last 10 days, two women have set the course of female achievement back by about 200 years. Step forward Rachel Reeves and Lily Allen. A week later and people are still talking about Reeves' Commons meltdown: what was she thinking? Yes, Winston Churchill was famous for blubbing, but sorry, the rules are different for women.

It was just about acceptable for Margaret Thatcher to well up when she thought her son was lost in the desert and when she was booted out of office by her own party, but in those first difficult years when nothing seemed to be working? She didn't burst into tears at the Dispatch Box: in fact she made one of her most famous speeches, The Lady's Not For Turning.