If the quality of an individual can be guaged by those who attack her, then the appointment of Ruth Kelly as Education Secretary in the wake of the defenestration of David Blunkett is the best news in ages. Hardly had Ms Kelly's feet got under her new desk than buckets of ordure rained down upon her from various directions. First off the mark in the much-chucking relay was the sisterhood. Ms Kelly, despite having produced no fewer than four children since becoming an MP and still managed to hold down ever-more demanding political full-time jobs without ever whingeing or playing the female victim card, is not a sister. Correction: it is because she produced no fewer than four children since becoming an MP and still managed to hold down ever-more demanding political full-time jobs without ever whingeing or playing the female victim card that she is not a sister. Hence the extraordinary outpouring of malice, jealousy and spite by the Blair Babes, as the Times reported on December 19:

'Some of the "Blair babes" are disappointed that despite being a working mum she has not been more forthright about women’s issues. "How has she managed to get so far when she's had so much maternity leave?" asked one female colleague...A woman backbencher who was elected with Kelly in 1997 said: "What's she ever done for Labour? We were the people in the key seats, rather than that cow who was dropped in and had barely been a party member for a couple of years. She wouldn’t talk to most of us. It was like she regarded herself as one of the 'in-girls'. This promotion is just a kick in the teeth.'

Oh dear. But much of this animosity derives from intense alarm that Ms Kelly, a practising and extremely serious Roman Catholic and a member of Opus Dei, no less, has the Wrong Views about social issues such as abortion, euthanasia and stem-cell research. As the Times reported today, this has caused panic within Britain's Frankenstein-industrial complex:

'Robin Lovell-Badge, head of developmental genetics at the National Institute of Medical Research, told The Times Higher Education Supplement: "I have just been in the US and have seen how confused the situation is there. If someone as senior as Ruth Kelly is not going to favour stem-cell research we will end up with a similarly schizophrenic system in this country. It is very worrying. "'

Note, of course, the implicit assumption that the default position of cannibalising embryos and destroying what remains of the sanctity of human life is axiomatically correct, and therefore any opposing views such as those held by Ms Kelly (she's religious, so she has to be a nut, just like George W Bush) must by definition be exiled altogether from the policy arena.

Nor is this the extent of the charge sheet. For Ms Kelly also has socially conservative views on family life, marriage and parenting. And as Education Secretary, she will now be in charge of the Government's teenage pregnancy strategy and its policy on sex education. No wonder the eugenics and rubber industries (more commonly known as family planning) are alarmed. The new minister might actually restore a modicum of order, sanity and morality to the sexual education of the nation's children. Horrors!

Of course, no-one knows how she is going to behave. Maybe she will be sucked into the amoral and anti-educational quicksands of the ghastly Education Department just like all her predecessors. But I would guess that it is no accident that the Prime Minister has put a woman with these views into this job. She displaced David Miliband, who was expected to get it but who has instead been shunted sideways to the Cabinet Office to do something frightfully important for Blair which for the moment escapes me. Miliband was gung-ho for abolishing A-levels. But Blair needs the soubriquet of 'the Prime Minister who abolished the gold standard of A-levels' like he needs a hole in the head. Canniest of political operators that he is, Blair understands the fury of Middle Britain at the disorderliness, insecurity and general cultural slide that is rampaging through suburbia (the pathetic Tories are still desperately trying to work out how they can join this cultural rout). It would surely suit him very well to have an Education Secretary who combined the work-and-family attributes of equality feminism (as opposed to the nihilistic, family-busting variety) with a defence of traditional social and moral values - and who will also defend the last tottering bastion of what passes for educational standards in this country.

My bet is that while Ms Kelly won't be allowed to rock the Frankenstein-industrial boat (big money talks louder than morals), she may well give the sisterhood a few more shocks. Tidings of comfort and joy, indeed.