By Lynne Miles | 4 July 2007, 15:01

Less than a week into the job, and the UK’s first female Home Secretary is drawing rather more attention for her cleavage than her – calm, confident and professional – manner in dealing with the recent spate of terror attacks.

Googling “jacqui smith cleavage” (you don’t need to – I did it for you) will pull up endless reams of political blogs and online comments scolding her about her inappropriate attire and accusing her of allowing her cleavage distract people from what she’s saying.

What they really mean, of course, that SHE HAS BOOBS and therefore one cannot possibly be expected to focus ones attention on what she’s saying regardless of whether it makes sense – and let’s face it, how would we know? And of course it’s all her fault for being such a shameless hussy.

For reference, the Daily Mail is carrying a picture of her here which, so far as I can see, shows her in a fairly normal looking top and jacket combination, shot from above. The woman can’t help HAVING breasts, but other people can help whether they have the common courtesy to listen to what she’s saying or would prefer to belittle her with endless discussions of her tits.