Now our ‘menopause allies’ really know how we suffer. Isn’t that right, Iain Duncan Smith? | Catherine Bennett

Wearing a gilet to feel a hot flush has opened his and others' eyes, so they claim. Hmmm

Shortly before his relaunch as a lead apologist for Liz Truss, Sir Iain Duncan Smith had enough time on his hands to try on a MenoVest, a kind of heated gilet now enjoying a moment. This successor to the pregnancy simulator, with its understated hint of the This is what a feminist looks like" T-shirt, is advertised as converting its male wearers into menopause allies".

Last week's best known recruit was the BBC presenter Jeremy Vine. After moments in the gilet, he told a campaigner: I'm now suffering what you suffered." In fact, Vine suspected, he was already cognitively struggling, just like an actual menopausal woman having a hot flush: I can't even think of a question now." Mercifully it had passed before management got to hear about it.

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