[Wessex]

"It seems like this trend is spreading, and it's gotta be driving the feminists nuts."

Not so sure. Tony Blair's wife wears one and she is heavily into women's rights. Quite puzzling.

[BelegStrongbow]

Not strictly: one of the aims of the progressive/leftist movement is to capture traditional symbols and wrench them away from their orthodox moorings. It's Orwellian, and therefore all the more effective.

Screwtape is proud of them, IMHO.

In Christ,
Deacon Paul+

[B Knotts]

According to this article, she doesn't wear it regularly; she wore it when she met Pope John Paul II, as protocol demands, and then wore it at the Vespers service held in London after his death.

Revealed: Tony Blair's Catholic secret

Still, many Britons didn't like it:

In the pews, the editor of one Catholic newspaper turns to the chairman of another.

Editor: "Is Cherie wearing what I think she's wearing?" Chairman: "Good God. I haven't seen a mantilla for 20 years."

...

After the service, however, many worshippers were still fixated on the mystery of Cherie's headgear. Wearing a mantilla in London is the equivalent of a modern City banker sporting a bowler hat - a head-turning anachronism.

"I know she's proud of her faith, but she didn't have to rub our noses in it," grumbled one Catholic grandee.

FWIW, I think it'd be good to see British bankers wearing bowler hats again...I guess I'm just old-fashioned. :-)