Miriam González Durántez: 'I'm like a tigress when it comes to my children' | Politics | The Guardian Miriam González Durántez Miriam González Durántez: 'I'm like a tigress when it comes to my children' She puts her job first, refuses to play the adoring wife and mentors thousands of schoolgirls. Is Miriam González Durántez the most likable woman in British politics? Miranda Sawyer meets Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg’s better half Miriam González Durántez: ‘What I am focusing on right now is how to protect my family during the election campaign.’ Photograph: Paul Stuart Miriam González Durántez: ‘What I am focusing on right now is how to protect my family during the election campaign.’ Photograph: Paul Stuart Miriam González Durántez Miriam González Durántez: 'I'm like a tigress when it comes to my children' She puts her job first, refuses to play the adoring wife and mentors thousands of schoolgirls. Is Miriam González Durántez the most likable woman in British politics?

Miranda Sawyer meets Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg’s better half Saturday 21 March 2015 03.00 EDT Last modified on Tuesday 20 September 2016 06.01 EDT Share on Messenger Close Wednesday morning, 9.30am. I am at the London Aquatics Centre in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park , a building so vast and light, it makes my eyes hurt. In front of me is the swimming pool, a smooth, blue oblong, where Rebecca Adlington won a bronze medal for the 400m freestyle in 2012 and Ellie Simmonds won two golds . There is nobody in it. Several light years away is a diving pool; behind it, sunlight dazzles. Around the main pool are circular tables. At each table sit six or so schoolgirls aged 14 to 17, and one older woman. It’s like a municipal version of a Miami nightclub. At the far end, where the DJ should be, stands a woman in well-cut trousers and heels. This is Miriam González Durántez , international lawyer, lovely-haired wife of Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg and campaigner.

At least, I think it’s her: the size of the centre makes it difficult to tell. González Durántez is making a short speech about her organisation, Inspiring Women , the reason we are all here. Unfortunately, the acoustics and her Spanish accent make it hard to understand much of what she’s saying. Inspiring Women is a simple idea: get professional women to talk for one hour to teenage girls about their jobs, so the teenagers hear for themselves about a variety of possible careers. That simplicity, however, comes heavily sprinkled in PR pizzazz. Thus the women will not be just talking, but “speed-mentoring”, meaning they’re each assigned a table where they chat to the girls (300 in total) for 15 minutes, then move on to talk to another group. They have been collected together in terms of their careers: all the women here except González Durántez have jobs in sport, hence our venue. Clare Balding is hosting alongside González Durántez; everything is being filmed by BT Sport; other Inspiring Women sports-speed-mentoring events are being held simultaneously across the country.

All very exciting, but behind González Durántez and Balding, atop a diving board reached by what seem like the stairs from A Matter Of Life And Death , sits a whopping distraction: teeny tiny Tom Daley . Daley trains in the diving pool every day. Earlier, to oohs and aahs, we watched his dolly frame spin and twirl through the air, then splash into the water. I worry about the feminist implications of one man taking attention away from hundreds of high-achieving women, of Speedos trumping speed-mentoring. But perhaps I’m overanalysing. Someone rings a bell for the event to start and I walk over to González Durántez’s table. She is talking to a group from Caterham High. The girls all have questions, which they read out in turn. “How do you prepare for your job?” one girl asks, carefully. I’m not sure she knows what González Durántez’s job is. González Durántez doesn’t mind. She is welcoming, smiling throughout. She explains that she is a lawyer and says she ended up becoming one “by chance”.

“It’s not whether you are smart,” she says, “it’s whether you make an effort. I worked hard at school, so I had the discipline to work hard in my job. I know if I put eight hours in, it’s better than four hours.” The girls lean in, not because they’ve read Sheryl Sandberg , but because it’s the only way to hear. I check out a few other tables. There is talk of physiotherapy, of sports agents, of presenting, of lobbying organisations. The speakers are sensible, inclusive, goal-oriented; the girls, keen but slightly shy. It is an odd event. The scale of everything – the hugeness of the pool, the height of the ceiling, the number of people, how small everyone is and how far away – messes with your head. Also, although everyone is thoroughly well-meaning, the atmosphere is a bit stiff, and not tailor-made to engage teenagers. After half an hour, some of the girls seem a bit glazed. Pinterest Making a splash: Miriam González Durántez with schoolgirls at the London Aquatics Centre. Photograph: Kalpesh Lathigra for the Guardian Inspiring Women is led by someone who clearly fits the bill herself.

From a small village in rural Spain, Miriam González Durántez is now a successful lawyer, a partner specialising in international trade regulations. She’s mother to three boys aged six, 10 and 13. She speaks three languages: her native Spanish, plus English and French. Since she launched her initiative last November, she has got 12,000 professional women to talk to 180,000 girls (her aim is to get to 15,000 and 250,000 respectively). But she is also Nick Clegg’s wife. And this means that, unfairly – because that’s how power works – her deputy prime minister husband and their relationship are often the bits of her life that get the most attention. No matter how well she does, whichever good causes she supports, González Durántez is still partly regarded as his missus. How galling. So it’s refreshing to see how often she makes teasing statements about her husband’s job. She refuses to say that it is more important than him dropping his kids off at school, for instance.

“Every single politician would learn more about the state of the country outside the school gates than sitting in hours of meetings,” she remarked just the other week . And: “Men want to be with their children… Lots of men are feminists.” She is not a political wife in the old tradition. Not for her the silent sidekick role, gazing supportively at her husband while he does all the talking. This goes for Samantha Cameron and Justine Miliband , too, but they are not quite as high-achieving as González Durántez, and both are more willing to do the media grip-and-grin. They’ve both stood next to their husbands during party conference speeches (González Durántez remained seated); they’ve both been in full family portraits with their kids (González Durántez said nope to that, too). Pinterest At William and Kate’s wedding in 2011. Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images “No, our kids have never been in any pictures with us, never,” González Durántez says firmly. “I’m like a tigress when it comes to my children. That is my top priority, and Nick’s, too.

What I am focusing on right now is how to protect them during the next few months’ campaign. Last time, I sent them to Spain, but now they are older, and one has exams.” It’s a different day and we are at her place of work, Dechert (pronounced Dekkert), a legal firm in the City. González Durántez and I – plus three of her people and a minder from the Lib Dems (the smartly-suited embodiment of an elephant in the room) – are in a glass-walled meeting space. González Durántez, a strikingly handsome woman, brings with her a friendly manner, a warmth, but also a sense of urgency. She grips a BlackBerry; she’s going to have to take a call at some point. I’ve seen González Durántez speak at an awards ceremony where she was charismatic, even mischievous. Today, her charm is tempered by what she wants to get across. “When we do press, Inspiring Women gets a surge in women signing up as mentors,” she tells me, and hits me up for contacts for a future event.

She is very careful and deliberate with her answers, conscious of how what she says may come back to bite her, or her husband. After all, she is a lawyer married to a politician, and a general election is coming up. She’s more than happy to talk about feminism, and has some sobering figures. For instance, although women make up 49% of the working population in the UK, 75% of them are employed in one of five “C” professions: caring, catering, cashiering, cleaning, clerical. “I do believe very strongly that there is still residual sexism,” she says. “A lot of progress has been made – obviously more for some women than for others. But at a general level, I think we have 10%, 15% sexism in the workplace that is holding some women back. And a lot of it translates into lack of self-confidence, which is an issue with girls. With self-confidence, I think, if you don’t have it, you have to fake it. But self-confidence is the product of your experience. At the end of the day, the more you do something, the more confident you are.” This is one of the reasons she wants to reach schoolgirls.

It’s also why she emphasises hard work. We have a small disagreement about this: I say that often it’s sparkiness and extroversion that gets you noticed in jobs, rather than silent diligence. González Durántez says maybe, but not at school. “In a school, you have to learn very well a few basic skills, and also to develop your thinking, and work hard. Working very hard doesn’t mean you will do only whatever you have been asked to do. No matter where you are, you try a little bit harder.” González Durántez’s work ethic is perhaps the reason her campaign has been such a success. She also enjoys it, telling me that it’s not only the girls that benefit, but the speakers, too (she thinks that many women are too modest about their achievements). She says that the girls, when asked who they look up to, often say Beyoncé, but just as many say their mum or grandmother (“I want to give them a hug for this”). “It’s just about inspiring the girls by the very simple concept of ‘I cannot dream it unless I have seen it’,” González Durántez says. “We are, I guess, hoping towards the future.

Some girls approach you afterwards and say, ‘This is fantastic. I am going to try this or that.’ But, for many, you are just hoping that you leave a seed. If in the future they think, ‘Well, I will want to be an astronaut’ and they happen to have met the first female astronaut from the UK… It’s a bit of a leap of faith.” It’s interesting that she has such a passion for supporting young girls, being the mother of three boys, but she tells me that the boys (Antonio, Alberto and Miguel) have been supportive of her new initiative, giving her ideas, offering help when it comes to making promotional films. “We don’t treat our children any different than if they were girls,” she says. “I don’t have a project of indoctrination for them to be feminists, but I think that you show by example.” González Durántez organises her work around her children: every day, after getting up around 6-6.30am, she or Clegg takes them to school, and she makes sure she can be back for bedtime most evenings.

Afterwards, she carries on working: her legal speciality is international trade compliance, so she finds that, due to time differences, this works fine. She learned to bend her job to her needs when she first had a child. She was working in Brussels, in external relations, and friends with Anna Lindh , the Swedish foreign affairs minister (who was later assassinated, in 2003). Lindh told González Durántez to set her own boundaries when it came to her kids, to organise meetings rather than go for dinners. How do you choose who to have kids with? 'If you feel respected, everything will be fine. And if you don’t, think twice' Pinterest ‘I don’t have a project of indoctrination for our children to be feminists, but I think that you show by example.’ Photograph: Paul Stuart I’ve been told that the Cleggs all speak Spanish at home, but she tells me this isn’t true: González Durántez speaks Spanish to the boys, Clegg English, and they speak English to each other. They met in Bruges, in 1991, at a scholarship programme at the College of Europe, in a class on European law and politics.

When she first saw him, González Durántez says she thought, “Wow!” (This makes me laugh.) But their first conversations were stilted, as they had to be conducted in their only mutual language, French, which neither spoke brilliantly. They dated for some time before they married and had children. She has said in the past that choosing the person you have kids with is the biggest decision a woman will ever make. How do you know who to choose, I ask. “Well, you do your homework when you buy a car,” she says. “Lots of women feel that it’s important to have the discussion [with their partner] as to what you do when you have children. For me, it’s much more general than that. It’s just to be respected. If you feel respected, everything will be fine. And if you don’t, think twice.” She is so sensible, González Durántez, that she can appear sheltered, almost naive.

When we talk about role models, she says, “Women who are role models are like mushrooms,” and doesn’t follow it up with the usual joke about being kept in the dark and fed shit, but with: “The more you look for them, the more you find.” She doesn’t seem to have a cynical bone in her body: she really does believe in hard work, respecting others and commitment. “Well, I apply myself to things. I make an effort on everything and I don’t do things lightly. If I commit myself to something, I am willing to do it. Also, I am an organised person. I am practical with my clients, I look for solutions. But my weakness is I am impatient. I want results quickly.” González Durántez grew up in Valladolid province, Spain. Both her parents were teachers, though her father, José Antonio González Caviedes, who died in 1996, became better known as a politician – he was mayor of Olmedo for many years. Her mother was the object of some local sympathy. “People felt sorry for her because she had to work,” González Durántez says, “but she wanted to. My mother has taught three generations in the village.

I am never going to make so much of a difference.” Actually, many of the women González Durántez knew had jobs – they just weren’t paid. Both her grandmothers came from rural communities where women laboured in the fields. Her maternal grandmother brought up eight boys (one died) during the Spanish civil war. “She was a tiny, dynamite woman,” González Durántez says. “Always vivacious and positive, a lesson in life.” Nick has a demanding job and there are times when it’s like, 'Oh my God, how do we handle this?' We work around it' Though democracy came to Spain after Franco died in 1975, old-fashioned attitudes took a while to wither. At her school, “when boys did sport, girls did knitting. And boys, when they behaved badly, were sent with the girls.” González Durántez enjoyed reading and music – she played an hour of piano every day (“I say this to my children, who do half an hour a week!”). As the eldest child of the mayor, she was very much part of village life: “I organised things for the little kids, I helped my father in politics, I tried it all.

A race or something, there I was. I wasn’t very good at running, but I tried it all.” The village was small: “Three thousand five hundred people – it’s like a big family. The gossip in my village makes the Daily Mail pale by comparison.” But González Durántez’s mother had an outward-looking approach. She sent her daughter to France and to Ireland for extended stays. (In Ireland, her main cross-cultural discovery was “Mars bars: amazing!”) Perhaps as a result, her ambitions were wide-ranging. “I wanted to be a doctor, and then the first time I hurt myself and I saw the blood, it was a disaster. Then I wanted to be a writer, I wanted to be a diplomat, I wanted to be a politician.” After school, she studied law at the University of Valladolid, got a scholarship to the College of Europe. And then, after she graduated, she tried to get a job. It was 1992. Spain had just hosted the Olympics in Barcelona. Democracy was established. Optimism was in the air. González Durántez sent her CV to “at least 100 companies”, but got not a single reply.

She talks about this both to me and to the girls at the sports event. It was clearly an enormous shock to her; she had to move back home to live with her parents. “I wish somebody had told me that I had to be more realistic. I was part of that generation in Spain that came just after democracy, and there was this feeling that, if you studied, with an education, you could get anything. As a result, we had huge expectations, and it took me some adjustment to come to grips with reality.” Pinterest At the Lib Dem conference in 2014. Photograph: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images She eventually got a job in Brussels at the European Commission, inputting data; and from there she moved up, becoming a leading negotiator for the World Trade Organisation on the subject of telecoms. This seems to me an astonishing career progression, but she says, “You get a lot of amazing opportunities in Brussels.” Once established, she travelled a lot for work. But after she and Clegg married in 2000, and had their first two kids, she realised that her job wasn’t compatible with small children. “I don’t feel any more or less of a woman or a feminist for that.

It was our decision, not anybody else’s.” Plus her husband wanted to pursue a political career, so in 2005 they moved to London. Now their life is, she insists, pretty similar to that of many working couples. “Where you have children, it’s more or less the same way for everybody. Sometimes you have particularly busy times where it’s like, ‘Oh my God, I don’t have time to think. How do we handle this?’ and at other times, it’s easier. Nick has a particularly demanding job, and we all work around that. At the end of the day, you are not just yourself, you are you and your circumstances. Whatever happens, my family and I decide what is the right thing for us. That’s it.” Of course, the Clegg-González Durántez circumstances may change soon. Her husband will almost certainly have a less powerful job after the election. But when I mention this, the Lib Dem man furrows his brow and González Durántez shuts me down. Has she discussed what lies ahead? “I don’t have a 10-year plan,” she says.

“My plan has changed a lot of times; I don’t even do plans any more.” Though she is careful not to talk too much about her family, it’s when she does that I get a sense of the real Miriam González Durántez. Despite her carefulness, her capacity for work, it’s the subjects of liberty, choice and opportunity that get her going. She wants all women to be able to make their own decisions, in work, within a relationship, with a family or without. “You know, I love the freedom in this country,” she says. “The very first five minutes when I came to live here, I felt a freedom that I had never felt before in my life, a freedom to be myself. I come from a culture, in Spain, in Brussels, where, if you want to be a lawyer, you study law, if you want to be an economist, you study economy. Whatever you do early in your life determines what you do later on. When I came here, I went for lots of chats with people because I didn’t know what to do. And pretty much all of them said, ‘What do you want to do?’ And I was like, ‘Me? You want to know what I think?

I have a choice?’ Now I take it for granted, but it was a complete shock to my system. I still think it today: if I wanted to change my job, everyone would say, ‘Great, good for you.’” She sounds almost incredulous. The hard-working schoolgirl from a village where working females were pitied has been allowed to achieve, a person who can organise her working life and family life as she feels fit. No wonder she’s so keen to promote these choices to teenage girls. There’s a part of González Durántez that still can’t believe how relaxed the British are when it comes to self-determination. “The value that is given to the individual here is very wonderful,” she says. “I’m very lucky to have it and to share it.

I think, you guys, you don’t appreciate how wonderful it is.” • You can register to volunteer an hour of your time to inspire young women at inspiringthefuture.org/inspiring-women Political leaders' wives: Miriam Clegg in 60 seconds Political leaders' wives: Miriam Clegg in 60 seconds Watch | Miriam Clegg in 60 seconds 01:07 Miriam González Durántez has led an illustrious career both before and since her marriage to the Deputy Prime Minister . Mrs Clegg, the daughter of two Spanish teachers, studied Law in Belgium. Miriam Clegg the wife of Deputy prime minister and Leader of the Liberal Democrats Nick Clegg Credit: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images She continued to work in Brussels which was where she met Nick Clegg. The pair married in 2000 and had three sons named Antonio, Alberto and Miguel. Mrs Clegg launched an Inspiring Women campaign in October 2013 which aimed to change school girl's perceptions of their position in the world.

Follow Telegraph News Premium 19 Jan 2017, 7:53am Miriam Gonzalez Durantez; Nick Clegg's wife - the strong, not so silent type | The Independent Profiles Miriam Gonzalez Durantez; Nick Clegg's wife - the strong, not so silent type She usually avoids political occasions, but she couldn’t resist speaking out about men’s role in childcare Friday 25 April 2014 16:37 BST Click to follow The Independent Online Miriam Gonzalez – who does not call herself Clegg – is a highly successful lawyer Illustration by Lauren Crow As staged events at press conferences go, Miriam Gonzalez’s intervention this week was one of the more memorable, and she certainly made her point with clarity. Her husband, Nick Clegg, feigned surprise when she raised her hand to ask a question during the launch of Cityfathers, an organisation for working fathers in the City of London, and claimed to be “terrified” about what she might say. She said: “There are many, many dinosaurs that still think that a man who takes care of his own children, he is some kind of less of a man.

So if you and other modern working fathers could start saying not only loudly, but also proudly, that taking care of your own children and being responsible for those children does not affect your level of testosterone – and that men who actually treat women as equals are the ones with more cojones.” It was that last word “cojones” that rang out. If she had used the English equivalent – “balls” – she would have invited faux outrage in unfriendly quarters, but even the Daily Mail could not work up any indignation about that reversion to her native tongue. It was unusual for the woman often referred to as Mrs Clegg to intervene so directly on a political occasion. During the 2010 general election, when Samantha Cameron was constantly at her husband’s side, and Sarah Brown had an established public profile, it was noted how rarely Nick Clegg’s wife was seen on the stomp.

Asked about her absence, she is reported to have replied: “I don’t have the luxury of having a job that I can simply abandon for five weeks, and I imagine that that is the situation for most people in the country.” That was not something that the Liberal Democrat election strategists had planned, but it turned out, as one put it, to be an “accidental masterstroke”. The public liked the sound of this semi-invisible wife, sticking with her day job and domestic affairs while hubby was out pitching for votes, and who even, in a poignant touch, fractured an elbow while shopping in the middle of the campaign. Later coverage was not so pleasant. Miriam Gonzalez – who does not call herself Clegg – is a highly successful lawyer, who was head of international trade law at the global law firm DLA Piper until 2011 when she switched to another global firm, Dechert, as head of EU trade, on a salary reputed to be £500,000. Certainly she is on several times what her husband is paid to be Deputy Prime Minister. She is also a woman with strong opinions on feminism, on the role of women in the workplace, and of fathers in the home.

“Of course every man who has children should be involved in their lives… If they don’t want to be involved, they shouldn’t have them,” she once remarked. Asked in 2011 by Grazia magazine how she managed to combine motherhood with a high-pressure job, she replied: “I always get very surprised when I’m asked this question because, you know, I have three children, I have a busy career and I have a very busy husband. Yet my husband has three children, he has a much busier career than I have, and he has a busy wife.” She is a Roman Catholic, whereas her husband is an atheist. When they were married in her home town of Olmedo, in the Valladolid region of Spain, he had to agree that their children would be brought up as Catholics. Their three sons, who all have Spanish Christian names, go to Catholic schools. The eldest is at the London Oratory, where Tony and Cherie Blair sent three of their four children. Nick Clegg even drew political flak by hinting in a radio interview last year that they might opt for private education, making it pretty clear in passing which of the two parents is taking the lead in deciding how the children are educated.

“I never have sought to impose a decision on my wife as well as my son for political reasons,” he said. On another occasion, nearly two years ago, he said: “I worship the ground Miriam walks on. She’s forthright and doesn’t let me get away with much at home.” A forthright, high-earning professional woman who does not allow her husband to “get away with much” – the material was all there for the sort of people who once revered Margaret Thatcher to start attacking the Deputy Prime Minister’s wife as a bossy female, and a Spaniard sticking her nose into British affairs. When Nick Clegg belatedly ordered an inquiry into allegations of sexual misconduct made against the Lib Dem peer Lord Rennard, it was instantly reported that he was following orders from his wife, a report the couple flatly denied. “What has it even got to do with her?” the Daily Mail’s Jan Moir demanded, in response to Ms Gonzalez’s “cojones” comment. “Bad enough that Miriam interferes in British public life, but sometimes she seems like another one of those high-powered supermums who does not practise what she preaches.

She may lecture City bosses about gender roles within the family, but what exactly is happening at Clegg Towers?” A woman on Ms Gonzalez’s salary is bound to have a nanny, and a housekeeper and others perhaps, to relieve them of domestic responsibilities, Ms Moir assumed. Though she has never been a practising politician, Ms Gonzalez was familiar with the political world before she and Nick Clegg first met. The Deputy Prime Minister paid tribute in a speech last year to his father-in-law, Jose Antonio Gonzalez Caviedes, who was a senator and the first elected mayor of Olmedo in 1979, as Spain moved to democracy after the death of the dictator General Francisco Franco. It was quickly pointed out that Senator Gonzalez, who was killed in a road accident in 1996, started his career under the dictatorship and was appointed mayor of Olmedo in the dying days of the Franco regime, before he stood for election – but there is a square in Olmedo named after him, in tribute to the benefits he brought to the town.

Born in Olmedo in 1968, Miriam Gonzalez Durantez graduated from Valladolid University, then took a post-graduate course in Bruges, where she was persuaded by fellow students to give classes in flamenco-style dancing. When a British student, Nick Clegg, turned up for her classes, she took it as a declaration of love. By the time they married, he was a member of the European Parliament, so she knew she was committing herself to the semi-public life of a politician’s spouse, though she may not have anticipated being married to the Deputy Prime Minister. In that position, she was going to invite condemnation whatever path she chose. Last October, she made a rare foray into print, writing an article for The Daily Telegraph to publicise a campaign to bring girls together with role models. In it, she wrote about the stereotyping of women: “If we do not have children, people assume we are ‘frustrated’. If we stay at home taking care of our children, it is said we are ‘not working’. If we have a job, we are portrayed as just ‘part-time mums’, and sometimes even as bad parents.

If we succeed in our professional lives, we’re branded ‘scary’.” Undoubtedly, there are men who still think that women like Miriam Gonzalez are scary: but as she would put it, they are the men without cojones. A life in brief Born: 31 May 1968, Olmedo, Spain. Family: Her parents were teachers, and her father was senator for Valladolid. She is married to Nick Clegg, and they have three children. Education: Studied law at University of Valladolid, and then won a scholarship to the College of Europe in Bruges. Career: Worked for the EU for 12 years, and was a partner at DLA Piper for six years. Now a partner at Dechert, where she is head of the EU trade and relations.

Miriam González Durántez: the Michelle Obama of the coalition | Anne Perkins | Opinion | The Guardian Miriam González Durántez: the Michelle Obama of the coalition Anne Perkins Unlike Samantha Cameron and Kate Middleton, Nick Clegg's partner refuses to play the silent, demure 20th-century wife Miriam González Durántez, wife of Nick Clegg, talks to students at a careers event hosted by the Inspiring Women campaign. Photograph: Mark Large/AFP/Getty Images Thursday 24 April 2014 12.15 EDT First published on Thursday 24 April 2014 12.15 EDT Share on Messenger Close The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge finish their tour of New Zealand and Australia on Friday, a successful off-West End run for reinventing monarchy, the show. David and Samantha Cameron have done the obligatory holiday snaps on their Easter break in Lanzarote, exposing their choice of destination and footwear to a judgemental nation. Last month, Ed Miliband and Justine Thornton did the couple thing in Israel.

But on Wednesday, Miriam González Durántez marked herself out as different , again, when she took over a press conference to challenge her husband, Nick Clegg, to stand up for men who take time out for parenting. González Durántez, a partner in the European law firm Dechert LLP, is also champion of the Inspiring Women campaign which she launched last October to encourage school girls to aim high. These are unusual women. Very few people choose a life partner knowing where it will land them, but each of these women married in the knowledge that they were committing themselves – if their partners' plans came off – to a life as part of a public couple. So the way they do their job is not some ad hoc response to an unexpected event. They are not rabbits caught in the headlights. Unavoidably, the way they live is a kind of parable of how to be a 21st-century wife, which for some of them turns out to be the same as being a 20th-century wife, with better household aids. Take Kate. She is, it is well recognised, the symbol of a monarchy that is ready to modernise. She is aspirational. She shops on the high street.

She is unusually comfortable with herself, and this more than anything fits her well to do another important part of her job, which is not being Diana, Princess of Wales. This past fortnight tracing the doomed footsteps of William's parents' antipodean tour 30 years ago is a way of substituting young royals 2.0 for the memory of that old, tarnished model. In its way, it was as slick an operation as if the late Apple founder Steve Jobs himself had designed it. Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge and Prince William pose in front of Uluru. Photograph: Pool/Getty Images But if she is a symbol of the monarchy, the living part of the constitution, then the message the monarchy is sending out about the way women live sits oddly with a business whose boss is female. The duchess, as Hilary Mantel has brilliantly argued , looks as if she has been formulated from some secret substance for this particular brand of public life, perfect wife and perfect mother. Leave out the fashion and she would not seem out of place in 1954. Even the way she challenges William – by being better than him at sport – is unthreatening.

In the company of Kate and George, Prince William can fulfil a role everyone can recognise and many identify with: he is husband and father, as well as future king. And that is what Kate is for. It is her job, the one she first tried out for all those years ago at St Andrew's, to lend a patina of normalcy to what might otherwise come to seem absurd. The former Tory MP Louise Mensch, who fled the Commons to be with her family in the US, got it all wrong when she tweeted on Thursday: " Kate Middleton's top 500 outfits <slideshow> Kate Middleton's top 10 speeches: 1. "I do." 2-10.... er..... ". The duchess is not there to speak. Political wives have to do something similar. Only consider the dilemma of Sally Bercow, married to the Speaker, John Bercow, a woman whose wilder judgement calls (the wrapped-in-a-sheet photocall) have sent middle England into shock. If she did not exist, she would have to be invented, as a kind of tester of the boundaries between the personal and the public that an official wife should observe. Sally Bercow enters the Big Brother house.

Photograph: Channel 5 Broadcasting/EPA Small surprise that Samantha Cameron, the businesswoman and mother who once looked as if she might be an upmarket role model for everyone trying to combine career and children, has now subsided into the role of silent support and photo-shoot prop. David and Samantha Cameron on holiday in Lanzarote. Photograph: Gonzalo Arroyo Moreno/Reuters Nor can any woman who marries a politician overlook the media monstering of Cherie Booth. Her public battle to be a feminist as well as a public wife seemed to be taken as a personal challenge to those sections of the media that think women should generally be seen but not heard. Almost everything she tried to do was undermined by their relentless hostility and their willingness to hunt down every private misjudgement. No wonder Sarah Brown chose less contentious causes and pursued them almost silently. Tony Blair and Cherie Booth arrive at No 10 Downing Street after Labour wins the 1997 election. Photograph: Martin Godwin for the Guardian But there is another way, and González Durántez might be it. She is the Michelle Obama of the coalition, the woman with a sense of purpose bold enough to ignore the constraints of convention.

She has harnessed her husband's prominence to promote a cause. She has challenged him as an equal. And what is scandalous is that almost all the public women in Britain at the moment owe their public role to their husbands. Miriam González Durántez hits out at the "victim complex" of politicians and their families in the public eye UK 21 April 2015 Miriam González Durántez hits out at the "victim complex" of politicians and their families in the public eye The international trade lawyer and wife of the Deputy Prime Minister discusses election campaign scrutiny, defending her husband's record, and protecting her family from the public eye. Miriam González Durántez, the international trade lawyer and wife of Nick Clegg, has done a live webchat with Mumsnet . In it, she speaks frankly about family life during the election campaign and her experience as a politician's wife. Her strongest words were aimed at those politicians painting themselves as victims of media scrutiny: Having been married to Nick, the Deputy Prime Minister of this country for the last five years, and seeing British politics so close-by has been a privilege.

I do not agree 'at all' with the victim complex that seems to be applied recently to some politicians and their families. If there are difficult times we deal with them together as a family, as I suppose most families do. But I can guarantee you that most of what families of politicians go through is nothing in comparison to the issues that other families have to deal with. But probably the most exciting revelation, which she feared would land her in trouble with Lib Dem press officers – "when my husband's advisers learn this they are going to freak out!" – was her recipe blog. She has been teaching her children (three sons called Antonio, Alberto and Miguel) to cook, and running a food blog with them for three years called "Mum and Sons" . Yet in spite of what sounds like quite an idyllic homelife, González Durántez won't be forced to portray a certain image of her life with her husband for political purposes: I have always accepted public scrutiny provided I am not asked to pretend we are a Kellogs family, because we are not one. She and Clegg have indeed been quite reticent about making their private life public, never releasing pictures of their children, and generally protecting them from the press.

As a Spanish citizen, González Durántez can't even vote for her husband in the general election. However, she did appear recently (as the other two main party leaders' wives have done) in an interview set in their kitchen . She's also been out campaigning with some of the women running for Lib Dem seats, and hinted at political aspirations of her own during her Mumsnet chat: I cannot even vote in this country, so there is no chance I could be a candidate. Though I would tell you this; I would have given my right arm to have been able to do for my country what Nick has done for his. As well as cooking, González Durántez filled us in on her television preferences. In terms of courtroom dramas, she enjoys The Good Wife more than Suits (joking that by "Daily Mail standards she would be the Bad Wife!"), and would have preferred a different actor playing her husband in Channel 4's recent film about the coalition: "I only watched the end . . . and still think George Clooney would have been a so much better fictional husband!" I've yet to hear back from the actor who played Clegg, Bertie Carvel, for comment...

Close This week’s magazine Getty My review of the football year, 2016 Pick-outs, flash gits and performance-enhancing underwear – it’s time to look back on the season. Print HTML Halfway through another season. Football, like the academic year and the school year, does not stick to the normal calendar, but any road up, here goes the report on the season, so far. Surprise of the Season This time last year it was Leicester City surprising us all. This time, it is Leicester City – surprising us all. By not playing as stunningly as they did. But they could still surprise us all. Well, we are easily surprised. Team of the Season The four at the top of the Prem are separated by just a few points. No one looks like drawing ahead. But I think Chelsea, who were dreadful last season, might do it. They have such a strong spine, with Costa, Hazard and Luiz, all of them at last coming into form. Worldwide, All-Star, Amazing, Galactic Team of the Season Carlisle United, of course. They’ve lost only one league game all season. They could well rise to glory come May, leaping out of League Two.

Young Players of the Season There seemed to be so many, early doors, about to thrill us all, with massive reputations and price tags, such as Paul Pogba, John Stones, Raheem Sterling, Daniel Sturridge, but they’ve all done little, moving backwards if anything, while poor old Ross Barkley has practically disappeared. What is the reason? Peaked too early? Weren’t as good as we thought? Jack Wilshere A young player who did seem to have peaked, thanks partly to always being injured. He got shunted out on loan from Arsenal to Bournemouth – yet he has played regularly and well for them. Could it be that it was the training and environment at Arsenal that somehow exacerbated his injuries? Manager of the Season When Mourinho arrived at the beginning of the season at Man United, I told everyone within earshot, which means my four granddaughters and the tortoise, that you mark my words, he’ll be gone by Xmas. I’m now predicting gone by Easter. Are you listening, Tortee? Oh, she’s asleep. Form is temporary, class is for ever . . . is one of football’s oldest clichés. I now think it’s bollocks.

Look at Jamie Vardy, considered for most of his career to have little class, and then came a miraculous season. Now he appears to be coming back. Football, like life, is a matter of ups and downs. I got that from a Christmas cracker. Hurrah for England We’re not so rubbish at football after all. The 30 names on the shortlist for this year’s Ballon d’Or did include one Englishman. Hence dancing in the streets of Leicester. Yes, Wee Jamie was the sole Inglander who made it. Football Expert of Year Alan Shearer, who else? Usually he gives us his pearls on TV but he graced the radio airwaves when talking to Gary Richardson on the Radio 4 Today programme. Asked about Gareth Southgate getting the England job, Shearer thought and then said: “At this moment in time, we are where we are.” Commentators’ Clichés There’s a new one this season which they’re all trying to work in. “Oh, that was a lovely pick-out.” “Pick-out” just means “pass”. Well Done, Tottingham Ahead of the game as ever, world leaders in the field.

It has been reported that Spurs’ most expensive season ticket in their new stadium will cost £18,000. A bargain. Where else will a fan find such joy for such a small amount of money? Joke Which reminds me of an old seaside postcard, one of the vintage saucy ones that local “watch committees” used to ban. It shows a tout outside Wembley Stadium selling tickets. “£10 for a ticket?” exclaims a fan. “I could get a woman for that!” “Yes,” replies the tout, “but not 45 minutes each way and a brass band at half-time.” Note the two period references. Touts have all but disappeared and so have the brass bands who’d march round the pitch at half-time. Arsenal also done good They have been using performance-enhancing undergarments. What cheaters. It’s to do with some revolutionary tight, clingy Lycra underpants and vest. The sleeves tend to hang down, covering the arms, which means when the team has elected to play in short sleeves, as decreed by the captain of the day, those using artificial stimulants can be seen to have these dodgy enhancers underneath.

There have been protests from diehard Gooners about this break with tradition. Well, they don’t have a lot to do. Trendy Referees Who’d have thought it? That referees would ever become as cool as geography teachers. Mark Clattenburg has got a tattoo on each wrist, in honour of taking two European finals. I quite expected such outrageous behaviour from him, as he always appeared a flash git – for a referee. But Michael Oliver is a surprise. He looks about 13 but he is 31, younger than many of the players he bosses around. He has suddenly appeared with a fashionable hairstyle. Two lines shaved at the side, tramlines. He’s been ridiculed on social media for having a “Year Seven haircut”. Most Annoying Advertisement “First Never Follows”. This is for Adidas. But is it true? Firsts have to follow, in order to get ahead, otherwise they’d have no one to get ahead of. Haircut of the Season God, I nearly forgot. For over 20 years this has been the biggest accolade in football journalism, NS section. Alas, hmm, can’t think of any. Blond highlights have faded, beards are soooo last season.

So who can it be? For the first time ever, the judging committee is being forced to award it to a referee. Step forward, Michael Oliver. Now go back and do your homework or you’ll never pass your GCSEs . . . Hunter Davies is a journalist, broadcaster and profilic author perhaps best known for writing about the Beatles. He is an ardent Tottenham fan and writes a regular column on football for the New Statesman. Miriam González Durántez - Mrs Clegg - Spain News in English Profiles Miriam González Durántez - Mrs Clegg She is wife of the Liberal Democrats leader in the U.K., Nick Clegg, but she can't vote for him Apr 19, 2014 - 7:21 PM Spanish national right wing newspaper, La Razón, has carried out an interview with Míriam González, the Spanish lawyer wife of the British Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg. The paper says it had the privilege of sharing coffee with her in Putney, and notes the forthcoming UK election could result in a hung parliament for the first time since 1974.

She tells the paper that the two party system should be done away with in Britain, and although she is a politician’s wife she does not have a role. ‘I’m just married to him’, she says, although admits it would be ‘a complete privilege’ to move into Downing Street. She interrupted an interview on ITV with Marie Nightingale after being described as ‘a political wife’. She met Nick Clegg in Bruges at the start of the 90’s where both were on post-graduate courses, and it was said to be love at first sight. She had to steal him from a friend who was going out with him at the time – ‘I lost a friend and gained a husband’, she is said to have said. The couple originally communicated in ‘schoolboy’s French’. The couple got married in 2,000, and have three children, Antonio, Alberto and Miguel, who are all kept fiercely out of the limelight. Born in Valladolid in May 1968, she grew up in Olmedo. She worked with Chris Patten when he was European Foreign Affairs Commissioner, and then Nick Clegg was an MEP.

She worked briefly in the Foreign Office in London, and is now a partner of the international law firm DLA Piper, where she will continue to work during the present election campaign in the U.K., bringing home more money than her husband. She never sets a meeting after six so that there is more time to be with the children. Miriam González Durántez - Archive Photo La Razón comments that the fierce British press is falling at her feet, describing her as elegant, watchful, and with a special passion when talking about politics. Much of the coverage of her in the UK press, with a big piece in the Daily Mail, has been that, being Spanish, she is not allowed to vote for her husband, to which she told La Razón that she is proud to be Spanish. The UK press note too that she has kept her Spanish surname, but she says that is just a cultural question. Míriam González father, José Antonio González Caviedes, was Mayor of Olmedo, and also a Partido Popular senator. He died in a traffic accident in 1996.

The paper asks her whether it is more difficult to be a politician’s daughter than a politician’s wife, and she notes that when she supported her father she was only responsible for herself, but now the difference is she is responsible for a family. She notes that the fundamental thing is to put matters into perspective, and to realise that a crisis is never such a big crisis, or a triumph is never such a big triumph. She comments too on her sadness at the state of Spanish politics, saying what is needed is more internal democracy in the Spanish political parties, so they can contact again with the electorate. Asked what her husband Nick Clegg likes most about Spain, she says ‘The jamon y croquetas’. Samantha Cameron and Miriam Gonzalez Durantez: Wives of David Cameron and Nick Clegg drop in on school for careers talk - Mirror Online News Wives of David Cameron and Nick Clegg drop in on school for careers talk Samantha Cameron and Miriam Gonzalez Durantez attended the event at Basildon Upper Academy in Essex, held as part of the national Inspiring Women campaign Share Creative consultant: Samantha Cameron (Photo: PA) Share Get daily updates directly to your inbox + Subscribe Thank you for subscribing!

Could not subscribe, try again laterInvalid Email A school gave its female pupils a careers talk with a difference when it brought in two of the most prominent women in the country - the wives of Prime Minister David Cameron and his deputy Nick Clegg. Samantha Cameron and Miriam Gonzalez Durantez were among 10 high profile women attending the event at Basildon Upper Academy in Essex, held as part of the national Inspiring Women campaign. The campaign, run by the charity the Education and Employers Taskforce and backed by Bank of America Merrill Lynch, was launched to connect women from all backgrounds with girls from state schools. The women took part in a “career speed dating” event with 100 girls to give them insights into different career options. Aside from their political links, both Mrs Cameron and Ms Gonzalez Durantez are highly successful business women in their own right. Mrs Cameron is creative consultant at the luxury stationery brand Smythson, while Ms Gonzalez Durantez is a partner at international law firm Dechert.

Law partner: Miriam Gonzalez Durantez with hubby Others who passed on their career tips were space scientist Dr Margaret Aderin-Pocock, CNN’s chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour and writer and broadcaster Clare Balding. Former culture secretary Dame Tessa Jowell talked about her experiences as a frontline politician, while former RAF officer Mandy Hickson told the girls about life as a fast jet pilot. Speaking of her support for the Inspiring Women campaign, Ms Gonzalez Durantez said: “Girls need to feel free to make their own choices. “The main purpose of the Inspiring Women campaign is to reassure them that there are many female role models out there willing to help and that any option they take in life is valid if it is what they really want.” Mrs Cameron added: “Female role models are essential to giving young girls the motivation and confidence to follow their aspirations. “Volunteering at a school for Inspiring the Future is a great way of ensuring dynamic, ambitious girls, like the ones I met today, are given every chance to think about their future and live up to their potential.” The school also held a careers fair, with 175 women in occupations as diverse as law, medicine, banking and politics.

Girls spoke with everyone from electricians to plastic surgeons about their work and the opportunities available to them. Organisations represented at the fair included BSkyB, Crossrail, Little Miss Geek, the National Trust, the Premier League, and the RAF. Basildon Upper Academy, which is currently in special measures and has recently been inspected by Ofsted, is the first school in the UK to host an event as part of the Inspiring Women campaign. Michael McCall, director of the school’s sixth form, said: “Inspiring Women has given the school an opportunity to further support our female students’ career advice and guidance. “The school is constantly looking for ways to develop students’ experience and knowledge. “In addition, the profile of the event supports the academy ethos of Aspire, Believe, Achieve.” For more information on Inspiring Women, visit . Like us on Facebook Most Read Most Recent Most Read Most Recent General Election 2015: Nick Clegg's wife Miriam González joins Jo Swinson on the campaign trail - Telegraph Follow Vroom vroom!

Welcome to Scottolier, a motorbike parts manufacturer just outside Glasgow, where a local BBC reporter has just discovered the best way to rev Miriam González’s engines - by asking her if she was ‘sent’ by her husband Nick Clegg to help his female candidates, on this occasion the local MP Jo Swinson. “That is a bit sexist,” storms González, fiery in a bright red top I am too scared to ask the provenance of. “I have come here myself because I want to support politicians of Jo’s calibre. She is exactly the kind of woman I would like to see more of in Westminster.” Miriam Gonzalez during her visit to Scottoiler (Stuart Nicol) Mrs González does not suffer fools gladly (no jokes at the back about her husband being one). This is, after all, a woman who travelled to Iran, Pakistan and Syria shortly after the September 11th attacks as part of her job advising Chris Patten at the European Commission. She was pregnant with her first child at the time. “Oh, it was good that they saw a pregnant woman doing a job,” she says, batting away any suggestions that this was somehow brave, or - I don’t know - crazy.

“They would offer me apples and make sure I ate healthily.” • Meet Miriam - the woman who keeps Nick Clegg on his toes The 46-year old lawyer has flown to Glasgow (on Easyjet) to help Swinson launch the Lib Dems five point plan for creating opportunities for women - they chose the factory as it is run by a team of ladies. González has brought with her an entourage of just two and the kind of cojone-breaking attitude that leaves people trailing in her wake, cheering “Go Miriam!”. Miriam González during her visit to Scottoiler with Jo Swinson Lib Dem MP for East Dumbartonshire (Stuart Nicol) Anyway, Mrs González Durántez - to give her her full title, and no, that doesn’t include the husband’s surname, thank you very much - is all about creating opportunities for women. Except perhaps one woman. What does she think of Nicola Sturgeon?

“Well I think it’s good to have more females in politics, and to have more prominent females in politics, but the kind of women I want to see are the ones who want to work for the whole of country, and not those who want to break up the country.” Miriam González and Nick Clegg (Rex Pictures) After our trip to the motorbike factory - no, she won’t be getting on the back of one for a photo and yes, her husband can ride one - we move to a nearby restaurant where, over a lunch of haggis, neeps and tatties (myself) and goats cheese salad (her), we discuss everything other than what she is wearing (Topshop, as it turns out). Given her passion for campaigning - she runs the Inspiring Women group which works with schools to support young girls - might she be the closest thing we have to Hillary Clinton? “I will take that as a great compliment,” she says in a Spanish accent so intoxicating you can almost imagine that we were in a tapas bar in Madrid rather than a cafe in East Dunbartonshire. • Miriam Clegg's secret blog recipes: are they any good?

“I like politics, I love politics, I alway have. I am the daughter of a politician, I have worked with politicians in Brussels, and now I am married to a politician. I don’t understand not being interested in politics, because it is life.” It is safe to say that if Miriam was running in Sheffield Hallam, she would not be at risk of losing her seat. But she can’t, because she is not a British citizen, thus adding to the sense that this election campaign is being held almost entirely in the perfectly manicured hands of women we cannot actually vote for. Have the González Durántez-Clegg family planned for the possibility that Nick might not be an MP in just over a week’s time? “Well that is the unpredictable nature of politics, and you just do it together. We happen to be a very close family. But lots of people are in unpredictable jobs and things are much worse for them. At least now you have a fixed parliament, and that makes it easier.” If that happens, would they depart back to her homeland? “I love this country. I love the freedom.

You do not appreciate it perhaps because you are so used to it, but in Spain if you study law you have to be a lawyer, whereas here, nobody cares. When I came here ten years ago and I had given up my job in Brussels, I was completely mesmerised when people asked what I wanted to do. "That is fantastic! Even now with all the photographers and the media, I feel more free here than I do anywhere else in the world. You have the capacity to reinvent yourself here.” Her husband must be hoping that is true, but what would Miriam do if given the opportunity to try something new? Become prime minister of Spain? Get British citizenship and take over the Lib Dems? Round up all the world’s women and start an amazing feminist revolution? “I’m not sure. But I’m hoping in my life I will have plenty of vocations in which I can reinvent myself.” To which there is really only one response: Go Miriam! Polls open in Nick Clegg's wife rules out prominent election role | Daily Mail Online comments The wife of Nick Clegg ruled out playing a prominent role in his general election campaign today as she became the latest spouse to take to the airwaves.

Miriam Gonzalez Durantez said she was 'willing to help' the Liberal Democrats but being an international lawyer and mother of three took up most of her time, and she could not just drop her job like Samantha Cameron. Gordon Brown and David Cameron have both indicated that their spouses will be employed as vote-winning weapons as they bid to present a more personal image to the electorate. 'I'm just married to him': Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg and his wife Miriam Gonzalez Durantez who claims she will put her job and children before the election The Lib Dem leader and 'first lady' will tonight be seen on television talking about their relationship and home life - following similar interviews involving the other wives. They spoke to ITV's Mary Nightingale about falling in love and choosing names for their sons but Mrs Gonzalez Durantez said she would not push forward any 'sugar-coated image' of herself. RELATED ARTICLES Share this article Share Objecting to the description of her as a 'political wife', she insisted: 'I'm the wife of a politician.

I don't have a role, I'm just married to him.' Asked if she would join the campaign trail along with Sarah Brown and Samantha Cameron, she said: 'I am willing of course to help Nick, because he is my husband. Glamorous: Samantha Cameron is willing to take time off work to help her husband become PM 'I want the best for him and of course I love him. I'm willing to help the party, and I'm willing to help the party because I'm willing to help what I defend. There is a core set of principles that I just cannot wait to see them implemented in the country.' In a swipe at David Cameron's wife Samantha Mrs Gonzalez Durantez said she did not have the 'luxury' of abandoning her job for an election campaign. 'How am I going to do that while I have children and I have a busy job? Well, listen, I don't have the luxury of having a job that I can simply abandon for five weeks, and I imagine that that is the situation for most people in the country.

'Whatever I can fit between the job and the children I will do it 150 per cent.' Mrs Cameron is the artistic director of Smythson, a luxury stationers and leather goods firm. She says she will appear twice a week during the election campaign. Mrs Gonzalez Durantez said what the other wives did was a 'personal choice', insisting it should be possible to maintain a normal domestic life despite the increased media attention. 'But it's one thing to let people to look into your life so that they get to know the politician, the person, and a different thing, in my view, is to put together a sugar-coated image of yourself, in the hope that that brings you votes. 'I mean it's not (just) that I wouldn't do that, it's that Nick would never agree to do that either. So it has to be possible because that's what we are going to do.' She revealed that she fell in love with Mr Clegg after being asked to set him up with a friend 'so I won a boyfriend and I lost a friend'.

Mr Clegg said he had been 'bewitched the first time I saw her' and talked of his efforts to learn enough Spanish to impress her non-English speaking family in 'deep Spain'. He also talked of losing the battle over giving all three of their young sons Spanish Christian names: Antonio, Alberto and Miguel. 'I did try to have a last-ditch attempt to have a good Anglo-Saxon name but Miriam told me in no uncertain terms that if they had to live with this short, stubby Anglo-Saxon name of Clegg then they needed something a little more exotic to come before it and she won.' Mr Clegg said he had never missed a parents' evening or a school nativity play and would never allow his political schedule to interfere with those sorts of events. 'I often think at moments like that when you have a meeting to do or interviews or I could be watching my children at an event at school: "what am I going to remember in 20 years' time?" 'And, crucially: "what are they going to remember in 20 years' time?".' Family matters: Nick Clegg and Miriam at home late last year.

They both say that their children come first Third child: The couple with their newborn son Miguel in February 2009. Miriam said her children needed 'exotic' Spanish first names because they had to live with the 'short, stubby Anglo-Saxon name of Clegg' In an extension of the family interview theme, Mrs Clegg's Dutch mother - his father is half-Russian - was also interviewed, talking about her experiences in a Japanese prisoner of war camp. She told the programme that her own mother, who was held at the camp in Java with her three young daughters, told her she probably would not have survived had they been there two months' longer. 'They were all basically given, you know, a small handful of vile smelling offal to eat, once a day if they were lucky,' Mr Clegg said. 'To bring three daughters through that kind of hell ... she was a very, very strong woman,' he said of his grandmother. He may not thank his mother for one recollection however, as he leads the Liberal Democrat response to the BA cabin crew strike this weekend. 'I remember with some sort of strike and [Nick] wants to know what the unions were and we got it wrong because [Nick] said onions ...

ha ha,' she recalled. The interview will be broadcast on ITV1 at 10.15pm. Debate: Does Fashion Have A Place In Politics? | Stylist Magazine Does fashion have a place in politics? Should women in politics be critiqued on their dress sense? When Nick Clegg’s wife, lawyer Miriam Gonzalez Durantez stepped out recently wearing burgundy tights and scarlet shoes she received a barrage of criticism over her fashion choice. But does it really matter what female politicians, and the partners of political leaders wear? Two of our writers battled it out in our latest issue, but we want to know what YOU think. Read their sides of the story, and then let us know your views in the comments box below. YES, says journalist Celia Walden “Women have always been judged on their appearance. We’re expected to dress for whichever ‘part’ it is that we want to play. For most of us that means turning up to work in a decent length skirt. For people in the political public eye, including party leaders’ wives, it means actively promoting allegiance through a trouser-suit, dress or handbag – the full body equivalent of the male politician’s tie.

Miriam Durantez will be photographed in public, whether she likes it or not. And because she is married to the deputy prime minister people will look at her outfit and try to assess what her agenda is. Margaret Thatcher, Hilary Clinton, Sarah Brown, Samantha Cameron and Carla Bruni have all seen clever dressing as an extra tool at their disposal. They know that the camera won’t love them for their principles, but that those principles can only be reinforced by their appearance, never eroded. It’s common sense.” NO, says Stylist columnist Lucy Mangan “It’s about as relevant as politicians being judged on their ability to swim. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s multiple makeovers are a sad misdirection of her time and resources. That Theresa May’s leopard print shoes can come to define her is beyond risible. Do we know how good the former French Justice Minister is at her job, or is it enough to know that she can pull a fabulous outfit together just five days after giving birth? Even wives of the elected do not escape, as Sarah Brown has found standing next to Carla Bruni. We should fight hard against the impulse to judge Miriam by any other criteria than her professional competence.

As long as our elected representatives aren’t wandering round Westminster in stained dressing gowns or anything else that strongly suggests a mind not completely on the job, we should focus our attention exclusively on what they say and do and on the huge gulf between the two…” Where do you stand in the politics and fashion debate? Share your views by commenting below. Picture credits: Rex Features

Question: Lawyer Miriam González Durántez is married to which prominent UK politician?
Answer: Nick Clegg