Help Sitemap Home Skip Navigation Contact Us Disability Statement


Ludicrous discrimination

Premium Article !

Your account has been frozen. For your available options click the below button.

Options

Premium Article !

To read this article in full you must have registered and have a Premium Content Subscription with the The Scotsman site.

Subscribe

Registered Article !

To read this article in full you must be registered with the site.

Sign In
Register
Click on thumbnail to view image
Click on thumbnail to view image
Click on thumbnail to view image
Click on thumbnail to view image
Click on thumbnail to view image

Published Date: 22 September 2008
Labour is still peddling the bogus democracy of all-women shortlists for election to parliament (your report, 16 September). This is discrimination. The system rests on the equally bogus logic that half the party's MPs should be women. This not only sets but limits female representation at 50 per cent. Why?
Scottish Labour Women's Network's Ann Henderson adds to the nonsense by insisting that the way to this false equality is to have women standing in "winnable" seats. Where might these be found – Glasgow East?

We are entitled to expect quality to be the selection criterion, not artificial categorisation. In practice, it is ludicrous; what if no woman presents herself, or worse still, what if any who do are less able than available men?

ROBERT DOW
Ormiston Road
Tranent, East Lothian



The full article contains 133 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
Page 1 of 1

  • Last Updated: 21 September 2008 8:43 PM
  • Source: The Scotsman
  • Location: Edinburgh
 
1

Guga II,

Rockall 22/09/2008 07:02:57
All women shortlists are also breaking the law of the land as that is blatant sex discrimination.

Then again, the New Labour Sleaze and Corruption Party are quite used to breaking the law of the land, even when it is laws that they brought in.
2

SouthernSkye,

Bonnie Bonn 22/09/2008 07:50:56
Perhaps a new call for "All women in short skirts" should be heralded by the party faithful to show a little balance?
3

Rudi Hucker,

Uddingston 22/09/2008 08:49:02
SouthernSkye: we need to be a bit more selective about which of the lovely ladies we see in short skirts. Although the party is to be commended for doing its bit for equality by having a fair number with faces like boxes of frogs.
4

G,

dundy 22/09/2008 12:46:26
I can see why some people don't like women-only short-lists. BUT I think we have to address the rampant sexism in our society - one way would be to select candidates for short-listing without any knowledge of their gender...this sort of approach with "blinded" CVs and application forms has been tried a few times experimentally and increased the numbers of women and "minority" candidates invited to interview....one can only presume that unconscious or conscious shifting out of women still occurs....
OR we could allow either every women candidate to be interviewed or make sure that the numbers being put forward onto the short-list was even....however the second option seems rather gesture-driven...
5

Alternative (High-Octane) Fuel Head,

Edinburgh 22/09/2008 15:40:37
Who cares what stupid labour do?

Shortly after the next election, they will be consigned to the history books in the chapter covering terrible mistakes.

 

Comment on this Story

 

In order to post comments you must Register or Sign In

 
 
RSS Feed of this article's comments
Delivery formats: RSS, Atom, Javascript & Email
 
  

 
 


Sister Newspapers:
Press Complaints Commission

This website and its associated newspaper adheres to the Press Complaints Commission’s Code of Practice. If you have a complaint about editorial content which relates to inaccuracy or intrusion, then contact the Editor by clicking here.

If you remain dissatisfied with the response provided then you can contact the PCC by clicking here.