SMART MONEY'S ON MERKEL AND LAGARDE

Picture: The Telegraph

I have recently (and belatedly) started reading Germaine Greer's "The Whole Woman", published at the end of the twentieth century. There is a certain bitterness in later vintage Greer arising from the all too apparent flaws of "The Feminist Project", and in particular the failure of this to empower the "The Older Woman". However, it is not only older feminists who should reflect keenly on recent events in the Eurozone, where female power brokers Angela Merkel and Christine Lagarde have this week seen off a male chauvinist of Imperial Roman proportions in Silvio Berlusconi.

For the partnership of German Chancellor and International Monetary Fund chief should be a concern not only for male politicians well-past their sell-by date, but also for fashionably young political leaders like David Cameron, and even President Obama, who have a penchant for coming across as onetime head boys now elevated to the position of school head master or college principal: ie still relatively inexperienced in the workings of European Realpolitik.

The present problems of the Eurozone may have provided a most welcome distraction from those of UK (and US) political economy, with Eurosceptic interests having a field day in the British media, but in the medium to longer term it is likely to be Germany and fellow members of a European Union premier league who are the winners. Indeed Britain should beware being cold-shouldered in both the "Special Relationship" and the New Europe.

With this in mind, Britannia might well do worse than look to "Mature Feminism" for help in renewing her political economy and the national psyche. Why, after all, should women of a certain age fare so well in foreign public life and be largely excluded from appearing in British visual media? The answer must lie amongst our male-dominated political media classes, and the many women who subscribe to their televisual reality. However, whilst this deep-rooted cultural problem may inspire outstanding feminist critics like Germaine Greer, it will prevent Britain from getting real with the challenges of the twenty first century.