[Acrylic-bob]

It is said that much of politics is concerned with image, and in an age where Members of Parliament are chosen as much by their looks as by their political affiliations and policies, what are we to make of the couple of hundredweight of potatoes swathed in red serge and sable who paraded herself through Accrington town centre last weekend?

On what is arguably the most important day of her political career to date, the sort of day that any self-respecting woman would agonise over and plan for months in advance, this is what our new Mayor looks like.

Nobody can help being plain, or as our American cousins have it "homely", and in the ordinary everyday world it does not really matter as much as some would have us believe; you really don't have to have hollywood good looks and glamour to be effective or competant. One is not really required to spend every spare waking moment in either the gym or the beauticians salon. Nor, surprisingly, is one required to expend the equivalent of of a developing country's Gross Domestic Product on a suitable wardrobe and accessories. But I really think that when one becomes the ceremonial head of a borough as proud as ours it really is incumbent on one to make at least a bit of an effort.


The photographs are courtesy Accringon Observer and Times