Osborne juggling jobs is just what women have always done

One of the oddest pieces of news this month is the indignation of the constituents of Tatton, who insist that their MP George Osborne should not become the editor of the Evening Standard if he wants to go on representing them politically: about 6 in every 10 think he has a moral imperative to have only one job.

Sure – if what they’re worrying about is a clash of priorities, or differing viewpoints, I can sympathise. But if it’s a question of the difficulty of doing two demanding jobs, I have to ask: what do they all think the women in politics do all the time?

Even if they don’t have children, most women have families who they are expected to look after. Any number of females have managed to deal with demands other than the job or the politics, and have somehow managed to cope with a load of different things most of the time.

In my experience, there are many different kinds of editor, anyway. All of them run things in their own ways. There were years when the magazine Woman’s Own was overseen by a man, Jimmy Drawbell, the managing editor, who we used to say must have “Warm and Sincere” embroidered on his underwear.

And when Brian Inglis ran the Spectator, during its rare somewhat lefty time, most of the discussion about what should be included in the magazine took place after really superior lunches with his journalists – a good method of making sure we all knew each other and what we were thinking.

There are endless different approaches to being an editor. I have a feeling Osborne will manage somehow.

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