MY colleagues do not refer to me for advice on what to wear. For the record, I favour a suit but don't exactly set the pace in the Echo style stakes. Only the other day I was listening to Radio Five when they were discussing how many pairs of shoes a man should own when one texter sent a message saying that the answer was obviously three.

"A pair for outdoors, some trainers and your football boots," he said with authority. "If a man has more he's a tart."

A trifle extreme, perhaps, but I bet many listeners were nodding hard in agreement.

Does my ignorance of what's in vogue affect my ability to do my job? No.

Does it matter how fashionable you are if you are a politician? You would think so to hear the frequent snide attacks on women in the past week or so.

William Hague (who lost an election after sporting a baseball cap) pilloried Labour's Harriet Harman for wearing a stab-proof jacket when going out with the police on patrol. Me? I couldn't care less if she went out wearing hobnails, a nappy, a bow tie and a fez. What she wears won't make our streets any safer.

This sniping came just days after French President Sarkozy's glamorous partner Carla Bruni dazzled Britain with her elegance and prompted daft dress-sense comparisons with our frumpy female Cabinet members like Ruth Kelly and Jacqui Smith. Does it affect their decision-making if they don't look as if they have just stepped off the catwalk? No again.

And it's not just female Labour politicians who suffer. Remember when Theresa May came to Bournemouth for a Tory conference and made the headlines, not for her political acumen but because she bought a pair of leopard-skin kitten heels?

It's more than just sexist. It's Upminster. And that's a few stops beyond Barking.