Has anyone here come across Nadine Dorries?

[LeftishBrit]

I have come across stuff about her on a number of occasions: a Christian-Right type who has been called 'the British Sarah Palin'; obsessed with abortion; vicious toward other MPs who disagree with her (and just as teabaggers hate nothing more than a liberal Republican, her most vehement hatred is for John Bercow).

But this:

http://barthsnotes.wordpress.com/2010/10/11/nadine-dorries-vicious-and-ridiculous/

reflects a particularly nasty personal campaign against a political opponent in her own constituency, accusing her of being a benefit-cheat (though the opponent says that she has never claimed benefits) and implying that she is 'faking' disability because she tweets and has some social life. I have not just relied on the comments about her, but have read her own recent blog posts.

Judging by Dorries' own record in the expenses scandal, she is the last person who should be accusing others of over-claiming on anything; but over and beyond that, one of the things that most depresses me about Tories is that some of them have a very harsh attitude to disability - and vulnerability of any sort - and encourage such mean-spiritedness in society in general. She seems to be an extreme example of such an attitude.

[muriel_volestrangler]

1. Yeah, I've heard of her; she's probably the worst Tory there is

She has frequently been caught lying about opponents, and had a very dodgy expenses saga with a 2nd house more than a hundred miles away from both her constituency and Westminster, in the Cotswolds. She is trying to get all abortion banned. Her behaviour to that blogger/candidate is disgraceful. I don't think Dorries has a single redeeming feature; she's probably worse than Daniel Hannan.

[T_i_B]

2. Of course I've heard of Mad Nad

She has her own blog, which I haven't read in a while but I know that she does try and maintain a sort of "ditzy blonde" persona on that. Doesn't really wash though.

She has a reputation for blocking anyone on Twitter who disagrees with her. (Indeed many Twitterers consider being blocked by Mad Nad to be a badge of honour) and the "political opponent" you refer to is a twitterer who goes by the name of @humphreycushion who happens to be one of her constituents. @HumphreyCushion is well known and popular on Twitter so Mad Nad's outburst did not win her any friends.

[Anarcho-Socialist]

3. She does fit more in the GOP mold of conservatism than the Tory one

While there's nothing untory about spiting the poor, being mean-spirited and considering the disabled to be workshy scum; her anti-intellectualism does put her at odds with the various Oxbridge classicists and PPE grads in the Tory party.

[LeftishBrit]

4. True, but even people who are themselves Oxbridge graduates can make a career of sneering at the

'intellectual elite' and 'chattering classes' - common enough among Daily Mail journalists and the like. An extreme example of RW populism in someone from an 'intellectual elite' background is Cambridge graduate Nick Griffin.

What seems to distinguish her from some other Tory MPs is her Religious Right nuttery (though a fair number have that too); her publicity-seeking on a personal level (there are plenty of 'rentamouths' but they usually are more preoccupied with attracting attention for their opinions than for themselves as people); and the extremely personal nature of her viciousness against opponents. The latter does strike me as fairly Republican. Also, she has explicitly expressed admiration for Sarah Palin and the teabaggers.