Diary - 4 February 2012 | The Spectator

Try as I might, I can’t pretend even to myself that the Cambridge Union debate against Katie Price was anything but a total victory for tits and telly, and an utter defeat for me. What was I thinking? But still. Last week I found myself at the Cambridge Union in a tight red dress, proposing the motion ‘This House believes the only Limit to Female Success is Female Ambition’ to an overflowing chamber. I thought I made some jolly good points. And Miss Price, in sparkly leggings and six-inch heels, was winningly unsure of herself, and actually delivered a four-minute speech in proposition rather than opposition of the motion. But none of this counted. Our side was crushed. The headlines were gleeful. ‘The Price is Right!’, ‘Posh Boris’s Sister Loses Cambridge Debate to JORDAN!!’ Our encounter was cast as a claws-out catfight — ‘It’s JORDAN v. the Lady!’ — and all because I supposedly made snobby reference to her Sky series and literary works. Speaking as someone who has failed to make millions from either telly or books, I meant both comments as the highest praise, as I told Katie later. I mean, how many topless models have an eponymous prime-time reality TV series all about them that never seems to end, and have sold millions of books they claim not even to have to read, let alone write? Total respect! I left the Cambridge boob-off thinking that Miss Price has made more money from ‘getting her tits out’ — her words to the Union — in one day than all those bright bushy-tailed bluestockings will in a year. They’re probably even now mulling whether they shouldn’t be ‘Girton them out’ too.

•••