UR TV CAST

There are three main styles of representation: vibrant cartooning, silhouetting and the Cecil B De Mille just-about-to-burst- into-song special. A fine example of the latter is the superb rendering of the trio in full Arabian fig from darling Grandad, who signs all in capitals. Without wanting to sound like Bob Hoskins (though I would, if they’d give me the money), better than any card received this year was the brief conversation I had with him just after Christmas. He announced his determination to buy this newspaper (what he’ll make of it is anyone’s guess, since it differs radically in tone and typography from the Bolton Evening News), and then, as if alarmed about what he might find in it, asked suddenly: “Do you write poetry?” He rewarded the negative with an emphatic “Thank god, I bloody hate poetry!”At my shoulder I could hear the egregious Bob grinning: “Garn! It dun aff ta be dis wy!” as we negotiated the usual family no-go areas, then all at once we were giggling and gossiping and, strangely, discussing railway engines “I’ve been thinking about writing a book,” he said drily. “I have solved several problems which have been puzzling scientists for years.” So that was what was going on in that place of rich mystery, the garden-shed, when I was young. As I was saying to B as we attempted to track down a festive bottle of perfume (forget Buzz Lightyear – just try getting hold of Givenchy’s Organza), if anyone could synthesize that memorable, manly pong of turps and compost, of hot tea, demolished radio-sets, motor oil and ancient biscuit-tins filled with screws, they’d make a bob or two at Christmas.. When Clare Whelan stood for selection as parliamentary candidate for Lewisham West, Conservative Central Office gave her a little friendly advice.

Image is all important, it counselled, especially for a woman She should wear a black skirt and a bright pink jacket. “When I had the selection interview there was only one other woman,” Whelan remembers “I couldn’t understand why the interviewers kept laughing. It was because the other woman was wearing exactly the same outfit.”

This, we are told, is to be the year of the woman in power. If the Labour party performs as expected in the election, there will be an influx of female MPs into parliament.

Marjorie Scardino has taken the helm at Pearsons to become the first female chief executive of a FTSE 100 index company. And meanwhile, across the pond, Madeleine Allbright has made history by being appointed the first ever female Secretary of State. But as more and more women enter the public eye, will they at last be freed from the constant public scrutiny of their wardrobes and personal style? Or will Madeleine Allbright have to run the gauntlet that past powerful women, from Margaret Thatcher to Hillary Clinton, have had to?
In the case of Maggie and Hillary, the spin doctors moved in fast and created for each of them the look that has become the equivalent of the male corporate suit: power bob or similar, sober but smart jacket and skirt or suit – serious but soft and, well, feminine And dull, dull, dull, in the opinion of Clare Whelan “The image makers push you into a mould,” she complains. “Labour politicians especially are keen on cloning.”Smart women, according to Whelan (who works as assistant to Edwina Currie), are showing two fingers to the image-makers and finding their own style. “Shoulder pads used to be obligatory, but all that’s changing. I have adopted a uniform black or cream polo neck and a bright jacket.” After all, breaking the mould can work to a woman’s advantage.

“In a room full of 300 men in grey suits and one woman in pink you are the one people remember,” she adds.That is, as Whelan’s selection anecdote demonstrates, until all the other pink jackets walk in. For colour consultant-constructed woman, loud and proud and brightly painted, is fast become another female stereotype. It’s what Judi James, author of the book Bodytalk, the Industrial Society guide to positive business images, calls “the loud `statement’ jacket, the uniform for assertiveness. As if they have been told that wearing bright red or that apple green will make them look more confident” (and they probably have).It may be fine in the boardroom of Marks & Spencer, but in the corridors of power?It’s a fine line to tread, but no one can deny that image is all important. In Bodytalk Judi James quotes Albert Mehrabian, who identified through research that the visual impact counted for 55 per cent of the impression a person gave, tone of voice counted for 38 per cent and what the person actually said counted for just seven per cent.And in politics, image matters more than anywhere else, especially for women.