It could take a man to make Labour less macho

First published in The Guardian, 22 November, 2006

The panic is rising to the surface, and the results of today's ICM poll for the Guardian will only add to the anxiety: Cameron is winning women over while Labour has yet to find its own womaniser. Women will swing the election, and Gordon Brown - he of the "big, clunking fist" - is just not seductive enough.

Finding a female running partner would be one way to soften Brown's edges and, for many, Harriet Harman is the obvious choice to stand alongside Blair's heavyweight successor. Harman has a record of championing "women's issues" and is the highest-ranking specimen available, someone who clearly has merit equal to any man.

So why does that solution not excite me?