Get this: the leader of the House of Lords is not only a woman but she’s just called herself ‘the Beyoncé of the House of Lords’.
During a debate about changing her ranking within the Cabinet (in effect David Cameron has demoted her), Baroness Tina Stowell pointed out: ‘I’m an independent woman and a single lady. My noble Lords might want to think of me as the Beyoncé of your Lordships’ House.’
Which, surprisingly, went down pretty well among the mostly white, male and aged Lords, as the motion – put forward by former Commons speaker Baroness Boothroyd (the Kelly to Stowell’s Beyoncé, perhaps?) – came out against Cameron’s decision.
Stowell didn’t even vote in it, but the Lords voted 177 to 29 in favour of rebuking the Prime Minister for downgrading her role.
Still, Stowell didn’t seem flustered. She said that no matter what Cameron’s decision was she would still do her job to the best of her ability.
‘I am leader of this House. While my Lords may be concerned about my ministerial rank, nothing changes that simple fact. Nothing has changed in practice... I will do the job of leader in exactly the same way as all my predecessors.’
Baroness Boothroyd wasn’t so diplomatic when it came to Cameron, though: ‘He has trampled on the constitution and he has discarded the principle of equal pay at the same time, quite frankly. It won’t do.’
At present, Lady Stowell earns £22,000 less than her predecessor, Lord Hill, who is a man. Cameron offered to top up her income from the party’s piggy bank, but Boothroyd pointed out: ‘Did the Prime Minister really expect the leader of this House to accept the offer to top up her pay from Conservative party funds?’
Labour peer Oona King added, reports* The Mirror*: ‘If a female leader of the Lords is paid less than her male counterpart what hope is there for those out in the real world – be they a hairdresser, stockbroker or dinner lady?’
This isn’t the first time that Beyoncé has been used to give power to single women, who historically haven’t had much political sway.
Over in America, a Fox news presenter derided the independent female electorate by calling them ‘Beyoncé voters’, and before she knew it, there wasa whole Tumblr dedicated to the political on-point messages Beyoncé puts out in her lyrics, spliced over pictures of sassy politicians.
Just FYI, when it comes to the sorts of decisions the Lords are involved in making, it sounds like they need Beyoncé-like people to give them some real-talk. After MP’s alerted them to the phenomenon of revenge porn, their Communications Committee met and gave some very dry, recommendations on how to to tackle it, including, reports the BBC: ‘Web firms should develop their abuse monitoring and user protection systems’.
The committee also said that current law surrounding social media and the internet was ‘fit for purpose and doing the job even though it was drafted before the social media were first invented.’
Yeah, those Lords definitely need someone to help them wake up (Flawless).
Follow Sophie on Twitter @sophwilkinson
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.