WHAT would Denis Thatcher do?

Not hold Margaret’s hand and simper, that’s for sure.

Political husbands stay in the background, quietly supportive and largely anonymous and left to get on with their own lives... If only political wives could do the same Justine Thornton, wife of Labour leader Ed Miliband, is the latest to be pushed into the spotlight in support of her husband, in his case to make him appear more normal.

Though why anyone’s ability to eat a bacon sandwich in public should be deemed part of their fitness to be Prime Minister, I don’t really understand.

Justine, comprehensive educated, former child actress, scarily clever, is a top-notch lawyer earning over £200,000 a year. Normal she may be, typical she ain’t.

Norma Major, who was also very bright and very normal, downplayed her own talents and stayed mostly in the constituency. Maybe she knew about Edwina Currie.

Cherie Blair, for all her many faults, made a mostly decent fist of the difficult balancing act of being mother, high-flying lawyer and Mrs Tony Blair and bringing up a family in 10 Downing Street. But it was she who started this desperate handholding and adoring gaze business.

Since then political wives – most of whom never even married politicians in the first place – have been considered, to a greater or lesser extent, part of the package. They have to turn up at constituency dos, party conferences, dress appropriately, smile sweetly and be careful with their opinions – with Nick Clegg’s wife, the splendid Miriam Gonzalez Durantez, another top lawyer, being one of the few bold enough to voice her own thoughts, quite forcefully occasionally.

Political husbands get on with their own lives. Political wives are still considered part of the package.

But the wives’ most important job is behind the scenes. Michelle Obama famously keeps her husband down to earth. Without Hillary, Clinton would have been even more out of control.

Wives, children and family life are the quickest way of puncturing an over-inflated ego and bringing a dash of the real world to a man who is constantly being told he’s important. An interview this week with President Putin reveals that he is long divorced, while his daughters live in other countries.

He lives alone in a large residence, surrounded by flunkies, rushing to do his every bidding –with no one to laugh at him, tease him, or not take him too seriously.

It could explain a lot.

OFF your bum and on your feet!

Only we’re not. Fewer of us are making journeys on foot any more. More than half a mile?

Forget it – get the car out, take a bus or even a taxi.

Which explains those apparently healthy people always waiting to catch the bus for just one stop into town. Isn’t it just easier and quicker to walk than wait? Apparently not.

The trouble is that the more you sit, the more you want to sit and the harder it is to walk.

Until in the end you seize up and can’t walk anyway.

Just a thought.

MODEL Josie Cunningham – the one who apparently considered aborting her unborn child if it got in the way of her chances of being on Big Brother – is now selling tickets for people to watch her give birth. £10,000 each.

I mean, why would anyone want to? One of the tickets has apparently been bought by a superfan.

Something tells me he’s not the sort of person you’d rush to get to know.

A VERY enjoyable evening at Middlesbrough’s Riverside Stadium last week (Thank you, North Riding FA) was made even better by a brilliant view of Amis Kapoor’s giant sculpture, Temenos, which looks a bit like huge ethereal fishing net.

It’s a breathtaking 50m high and 120m long, a feat of engineering as much as art, and is seen at its absolute best against a clear summer evening sky. Fantastic. Try to see it before the rain comes… HOORAY for the women of Turkey!

The country’s Deputy Prime Minister, in a bid to keep women pure and chaste, has tried to ban them from laughing in public.

Certainly can’t have women seeming happy. And you thought Turkey considered itself a modern country… The result is that nearly half a million Turkish women have simply taken to Twitter to share laughing, smiling selfies. Brilliant.

Which leaves the DPM all by himself in the Dark Ages.

THE Duchess of Cambridge, joined in a children’s game at the Commonwealth Games this week, hoppping over a tower of tins. Bouncy hair, big smile, wedge heels too. Respect.

ACTRESS Emma Thompson has two Oscars, three Baftas and an Emmy, but her mother, Phyllida Law, told Saga magazine that she always thought “Em would run the NHS or something.”

Mums. Just no pleasing them….

PS: After I moaned last week about the labels at the Bowes Museum they’ve been in touch to say that they’ve already improved them and that they also have all the information on the brilliant Shafts of Light exhibition available in folders that you can borrow as you walk round the gallery. And they’re getting more. So now you’ll know what you’re looking at, so get along and enjoy it.