Unlike our slackers, the Members of the House of Commons are already back at work – with Education Secretary Ruth Kelly facing a massive attack over sex offenders in schools.

The mid-market and highly influential Daily Mail goes way over the top today in a hilarious opening to a profile headed “Kelly – No stranger to controversy”:

Ruth Kelly’s position as Education Secretary has looked shaky almost since her appointment just over a year ago.

At 36, she was the youngest Cabinet minister by a decade and the
promotion raised eyebrows and hackles among more experienced
colleagues. The rapid rise came despite giving birth to a record four
children since becoming an MP in 1997.

However, her achievements were eclipsed by revelations of her links to
Opus Dei, the secretive Catholic organisation made famous in Dan
Brown’s blockbuster novel The Da Vinci Code.

Paedophiles and Dan Brown. Perhaps that explains the Mail‘s success.

Former News of the World and Daily Mirror editor Piers
Morgan would probably agree with this thesis. While one mightn’t call
him the most reliable witness after the ups and downs of his career –
particularly the City Slickers share tipping matter – he has some interesting observations to make on the Mail in his diaries.

He describes its editor, Paul Dacre, as “Brutal, to the point, totally devoid of any compassion. Very Daily Mail.”

Which may be why the paper’s profile continues:

More recently, Ms Kelly has been widely criticised for
failing to win support for schools reforms among Labour MPs and the
teaching profession.

Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott is among those MPs voicing concern
and the issue threatens to inflict a fatal Commons defeat on Mr Blair.

However, just 150 people were present in a hall with 1,200 seats when
the Education Secretary gave her first set piece speech aimed at
winning over doubters in Gateshead last Friday.

Who’d be a minister?