Is mild-mannered Fern sticking two fingers up at Brown's Government?
SHE'S the loveable queen of daytime TV.
But when Fern Britton turned her attentions to the financial crisis on last night's Question Time, the typically mild-mannered presenter managed to commit the worst blunder on live telly.
The mother-of-two, who was trying her hand at politics, inadvertently swore at Olympics minister Tessa Jowell by giving her a two-fingered salute as she emphatically waved her hands around.
The minister, who appeared to have picked up on Fern's mistake, glared at the presenter who swiftly lowered her hands.
VIDEO: WATCH FERN BRITTON'S BLUNDER ON QUESTION TIME
As the two female panelists flexed their claws, Fern went on to attack Jowell in a row over tax hikes on alcohol.
The presenter calmly told the audience: "Opening up the licensing hours to 24 hours, the reason was to get more money into the coiffers into the government, that money now has been spent."
But as the Olympics minister angrily shook her head at Fern's comments, the ITV presenter confronted her, asking:
"You're shaking your head Tessa but where did that money go?
"We’re taxed heavily on our alcohol now aren’t we?"
The minister retorted: "What I was shaking my head at is this reference to 24 hours licensing.
"Actually a tiny proportion have 24 hour licensing, supermarkets do [and] some bars."
I’m going to be very sexist here, but it appears that a lot of men have been in on this money business and they have made a very bad fist of it
Fern, who has become a national icon for her butter-wouldn't-melt manner on breakfast television, managed to ruffle more feathers as she criticised the Government for their handling of the financial crisis - claiming that male bankers had made a "very bad fist" of rectifying the economy's problems.
She suggested that the UK’s current financial woes may not have been quite so severe if women had been at the helm of the economy.
“It seems to the majority of people, that we who have families and mortgages and all of those things, we knew that spending was too much," she said.
“We knew that credit was being offered willy nilly, we knew that money was suddenly very cheap to borrow.”
She added: “I’m going to be very sexist here, but it appears that a lot of men have been in on this money business and they have made a very bad fist of it.
“If there were some women doing some old fashioned housework, if there was the old fashioned housekeeping where women are traditionally pretty good at making sure the money goes in the pot for electricity and the phone and the whatever - we didn’t pillage and rob it and stick it all on a horse to see if the money would come in next week which it clearly hasn’t - when we put all that money into the banks and we see nothing coming back.”
