Many years ago, revered actor Michael Caine (before he became a Sir), revealed his philosophy of ‘using the difficulty’ on the Parkinson Show.
He went on to explain that this meant finding a positive in any given situation, even if it was difficult to do so. Fast forward to Monday last week - in the House of Commons – and former Coronation Street star, and now Labour MP, Tracy Brabin, found herself in the middle of a ‘storm-in-a-teacup.’ Her crime was to wear an ‘off-the-shoulder’ black dress which had slipped down a little too far for some peoples’ liking; and the trolls on Twitter had a field day taking unpleasant pot-shots at her. The story also attracted the attention of the media in general. There isn’t, apparently, a dress code for women in the House of Commons, but one for the men!
I have to say, Sir Michael’s philosophy sprung to mind – it’s something I’ve adopted along the way as well. I guess being an eternal optimist, it appealed to me! It may not be Tracy’s adage, but she certainly ‘used the difficulty’ in her situation. In a now infamous quote on Twitter, she took the initiative away from the ‘trolls’ and in a telling tweet stated: “I don’t have time to reply to all of your comments but can I explain: I’m not a slag, hungover, a tart, about to breastfeed, a slapper, drunk, just been ban... over a wheelie bin.
“Who knew people could get so emotional over a shoulder.”
The dress she had worn on that infamous day was purchased from retailer ASOS and had subsequently sold out in minutes. Tracy followed up her response on Twitter, announcing she would be auctioning the dress on eBay for the #Girlguiding UK charity. At the time of posting this story on Linkedin, bids had been chased up from a starting price of £10 and stands at £18,100 as of 9.30am today (Wednesday February 12) and scheduled to end tomorrow at 18.41.
However, a word of caution from Sir Michael, who told the Parkinson Show audience: “Use the difficulty, but I’ve an added another philosophy - avoid them if you can.”
I wonder if anyone reading this has an amusing tale about ‘using the difficulty’ to get out of a jam?
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