Maria Miller’s appointment to, amongst other things, the Women and Equalities brief has received quite a lot of criticism from non-Conservatives today.
One part of that is wrong, but understandable – a simple mistake in not realising that the role she’s taken on isn’t the one Lynne Featherstone had but rather the one Theresa May had. As the BBC got this wrong, it’s no surprise many others followed in also getting it wrong, even though the accurate information is readily accessible in many places such as in Theresa May’s own write-up on the Home Office website. Not double-checking something the BBC reports is understandable (and I certainly don’t always do that!); it’s noticeable how long the erroneous information did the rounds on Twitter however.
Another part is a deeper mistake – and that’s the classic error of not comparing like with like. Judge a new appointee on their past voting record by all means, but it makes sense when doing so to all remember what the past voting record of their predecessor was at the time of appointment too.
Because if you do remember when Theresa May was appointed to the Women and Equalities brief, it was hardly without controversy. Take this from Liberal Conspiracy:
Outrage against Theresa May’s appointment grows…
Outrage has been growing online over the appointment of Theresa May as the minister of equality despite her voting record.
All sounds very familiar, doesn’t it? Any sensible discussion wouldn’t therefore put Maria Miller’s voting record in the context of her predecessor’s voting record. Good thing we’re all sensible, isn’t it?
* Mark Pack has written 101 Ways To Win An Election and produces a monthly newsletter about the Liberal Democrats.
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15 Comments
It appears that Helen Grant now has Lynne’s old role as undersecretary of state for Equalities – unless the role is being shared across two undersecretaries plus a Secretary of State. (And across three departments)
I agree on Miller vs. May though – May was hardly known for her sterling work on equalities. I doubt Miller will be any worse.
I think you completely missed the point with this article – this story did the rounds on social media sites because it’s pretty shameful that the government has appointed a minister for “equality” who has voted in this way, clearly showing they don’t believe in the principle of equality. The fact that they’ve done this twice in a row is even more bizarre. Plus the fact that there are two ministers with equality in their title, and many people have got the wrong one doesn’t seem to be relevant! I think this is nothing more than an attempt to divert attention from the appointment itself.
Stephen: Everyone can choose their own grounds to be outraged, of course, but on the two specific points you mention…
First, lots of people I saw did specifically say that there were outraged that Lynne Featherstone had been replaced by Maria Miller; that’s simply factually wrong. You may think factual errors aren’t relevant; myself, I think they’re highly relevant if you’re going to base your views on the evidence and not on a pre-conceived political viewpoint to be stuck with regardless of evidence.
Second, again what I saw lots of people say was that her appointment is a step back for equality. You can only judge something as a step back by looking at where you’re starting from – and that should mean looking at Theresa May’s voting record on appointment. And if fact the smart analysis would be to say, “Well, if Theresa May’s voting record nonetheless led to a government that has taken steps such as removing old convictions for gay sex from people’s records or moving towards equal marriage, perhaps not too much should be read into her successor’s voting record then?”
Erm… I can still think that Maria Miller’s voting record is appalling – ‘putting it in context’ by comparing it with the equally drastic voting record of Theresa May doesn’t nullify this point. Or are you arguing that we shouldn’t complain because all women and equalities ministers are just as bad as each other? Logic like that won’t win many votes.
Mark, you’re forgetting that Theresa May publically announced that she had changed her mind about things she had previously voted against (such as gay adoption and the equality act), after she got the position. Assuming that this is unlikely to happen again, people are right to be very concerned.
‘Assuming that this is unlikely to happen again’. It really sounds like you have given this woman a fair chance at expressing her current views Travis. If only you were in charge of equality, you seem like a very careful and balanced individual.
I don’t think having an equalities minister who had a role in inventing the Tory marriage tax break policy and who describes certain young people on her own website as feckless louts. That’s not the kind of language I’d like to hear from someone with a key role in advancing equalities.
You may be right about comparing right with right, Mark, but the fact is that this job was delegated to a Liberal Democrat who totally understood the issues and put Liberal Democrat values into practice as one of the most effective performers in the Government. What on earth possessed Nick to hand this role back to the Tories? I can’t see any gain for us at all.
Mark with all due respect you are a white CIS straight male.
You are unlikely to seek advise on abortion on a personal level, unlikely to go with your lesbian partner to seek IVF treatment, or your same-sex partner to get married. Therefore you probably are not concerned about how the new equalities minister’s past voting record may impact on your level of life, so please excuse those of us that are and have been directly affected by some of the way that Miller might go from getting just a little bit worried.
As Zoe points out Helen Grant may be the exact replacement for Lynne, though with her being a new MP in 2010 there is not enough of a voting record to judge her on. Though startling neither has come out either in favour or against marriage equality from what I can find.
Are you trying to suggest that a minister’s voting record being entirely at odds with their posting is negated as a complaint because another minister who has held the position was also demonstrably unsuitable for the role? This sounds like an absurd position to take.
Rather, you seem to be inadvertently highlighting that appointing demonstrably unsuitable ministers for the Women and Equalities brief is a pattern, which isn’t something to be lauded or a reason to ignore current mistakes.
Stephen, Zoe: I agree with what you’ve said in your comments (and Stephen – yup, you’ve got your guesses about me right!). My point is more that the sort of measured comments you’ve made are rather different from the sorts of comments my post was a reaction to. Sorry if it wasn’t clear which views I was reacting to!
Why do we need to compare Miller to May? You may as well debate the relative merits of suffocation vs drowning.
Ok, there’s no disputing the fact that this factual error has been mad by media outlets. Theresa May was her predecessor. Theresa May had a terrible voting record on these issues. Agreed. The point is that Cameron has not used this reshuffle as an opportunity to put someone more appropriate in the role. In that sense it is a step back: it is a missed opportunity. Frankly, I think the tone of your argument is misguided and pedantic.
Having any Minister (tory or lib dem) with a specific equalities brief in the Government seems to be tokenistic – the tories flirted with the equalities agenda in 2006-2009 but now seem to have reverted to quite hostile positions, seeing any anti-discrimination or equalties legislation as burdensome red-tape and attacking any equalities initiatives as ‘political correctness’. Am all for the social mobility agenda that has replaced it, but it is not the same thing. Having said that I really welcome Helen Grant’s appointment to the role – Helen has done fantastic work for domestic violence victims.
James – Lynne’s position was not tokenistic at all. She did some fantastic work on LGB&T issues and that will be a great loss. I fear that Miller and Grant’s positions could be tokenistic, though.
The reality is there was more progress on some equalities strands than others in the past two years. Zoe, I accept that Lynne may well have done a good job on LGBT issues, and certainly I’ve heard that good progress was made on gender issues too. However the situation with tackling race inequality was dire. This is one equalities strand that wasn’t in Lynne’s portfolio, this was subcontracted to Andrew Stunnel at DCLG. If Helen Grant has that brief, knowing what I know of Helen she promises an improvement on what’s gone before. However the record of Maria Miller, who she answers to, is worrying and that indicates that Helen has her work cut out for her.