In an email to party members this evening, Nick Clegg delivered the following news:
Tonight I’ve been hosting a reception to celebrate the Coalition’s commitment to equal marriage, an issue I’m very proud that Liberal Democrats are delivering on in Government.
I was delighted to be joined at the reception by Jo Swinson MP – who I’m pleased to announce is our new Equalities Minister, in addition to her role as Minister for Employment Relations and Consumer Affairs.
This news, I suspect, will be greeted with a very deep sigh of relief by many Lib Dems, not only because it means a Lib Dem will remain in charge of pushing through the coalition’s equalities agenda, but also because that Lib Dem is the highly-regarded Jo Swinson.
On the question of why this appointment was announced a week after the main reshuffle, I’m sure we can all take an educated guess at the answer. I’ll leave you to speculate on that in the comments below…
* Nick Thornsby is a day editor at Lib Dem Voice.
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19 Comments
Great news – this appointment will safeguard the Lib Dems’ strong reputation as defenders of equality and make sure that we follow through on the Coalition’s commitment to equal marriage. Jo’s record on equalities is second to none.
I would like to know if she will have the same powers that Lynne Featherstone had. I am hoping that she will keep up the good work on the body Confidence campaign. On the other hand there is a lot of alarm about what is happening to the Equalities Act (see http://cllrlesterholloway.wordpress.com/2012/08/10/equality-commission-is-being-hacked-to-death-by-the-coalition/#more-880) and I hope that Jo will have the power to tackle this head on in a positive way as well.
Good news…
I thought the LIB Dems would offer a breath of fresh air when the coalition took power. I went to Parliament to see Edward Davies nod through a worthless piece of legislation. How little interest he took in the subject matter before him. Playing politics is not what the Lib Dems should be about. Making a difference is what – it should be about.
Politicians are like actors, but unlike actors and models, politicians are not tricked into paying up-front fees – to bogus agents who charge thousands and then simply disappear back into the woodwork.
As ultimate Head of BIS EAS, will she do something positive or will she do what others have done over the last 15 years – little or nothing? There have been three bans put in place, which do not actually ban anything…
Is this what Lib Dem Ministers do for a living. Now you see it and… now you do not?
The jury is still out – after over two years of waiting!
This seriously needs clarification. Presumably when Nick says ‘equalities minister’ he means Parliamentary Under Secretary for Equalities, not actually Minister for Equalities. However there already is a PUS for Equalities, Helen Grant, who replaced Lynn Featherstone. So, since I presume she has not been sacked after a week in the job, are there now two Parliamentary Under Secretaries, and how can this be justified in such a small department with only a single minster?
I’m sorry, but I’m not at all convinced this news is going to be all it seems. I am however keeping my fingers well and truly crossed for luck.
Whilst welcoming the news, I second Simon’s concerns. It’s definitely positive, proof that if we complain loudly enough there is somebody listening, and Jo is an excellent choice but it’s as yet unclear exactly what post she’ll be taking up.
So, a week after the reshuffle, the reshuffle has one more surprise up its sleeve.
Of course, all Lib Dems will welcome the appointment of Jo Swinson to the equalities role. She will do a fine job. But it does beg a few questions…
1. What did Lynn Featherstone do wrong, that resulted in her having the equalities brief removed?
2. Why did this happen a week after the reshuffle? Why wasn’t it sorted at the same time?
3. There are now no less than three equalities ministers – what will they all do?
4. If this was an afterthought…why did it take until the grass roots were in uproar before it was sorted? Is this another failure of the leadership to make the right call on a key area?
5. Why, several hours after the announcement, did the Equalities Department make no mention of Jo’s appointment? (I write this on 12/9/12 at 8.04 am. There’s no mention at this time)
But despite all that – I am pleased.
Really
Good luck Jo
I think we’d all like to know what Nick Thornsby’s “educated guess” about reasons for the late appointment (and the general confusion over the equalities role or roles).
Pleased for Jo, the party and the equalities agenda – but it does feel as if ‘equalities’ has been stuffed into her job title post resfuffle afterthought to placate libdems, in a rather ‘in the thick of it’ cock-up type way – life imitating art perhaps! The key issue is which Minister does the Government Equalities Office actually report to? And it may not fit well with the rest of Jo’s job at BiS (the overall approach on employment relations for example is to water down the equality act obligations on employers as an example of red-tape). I for one am disappointed by what’s been done on the equalities agenda in Government – the EHRC and the Equalities Act have both been radically defenestrated.
Seems the LibDems are being fobbed off with the ‘nice to have’ social departments and being gradually excluded from the mainstream parts of government that make a difference to the majority – finance, defence and home office. I didn’t vote LibDem to support minority interests and running a party on that basis has no future.
Cameron, now under the control of the hard right, is throwing out a few crumbs to his coalition partners but the fillet steak and champagne is going to the nutters who want to concrete over the country and make it one large runway, float Britain off towards New York and then deny this will have any effect on the climate.
Nick and co – get a grip. You have nothing to lose by being ultra tough and squaring up to the Tories at every opportunity. At present they are walking all over you.
Jo now has a lot on her plate, and with Duncan now taking up additional work too they are going to need additional support, both in Westminster and in their constituencies.
If I was Labour I would be putting down some PQs on this I suspect that it will be Helen Grant and Maria Miller who will be answering the questions.
@Simon Beard there isn’t an Equalities Department as such the Minister who has that brief is responsible for co-ordinating those policy areas across government alongside their departmental role. Harriet Harman had the brief while Leader of the House and Terressa May whilst Home Secretary.
Great news! Jo Swinson has the very precious ability to put difficult issues into simple language; even Michael White (not an obvious friend of the LDs) praised her recently for this in one of his columns. That ability to communicate should really see this issue pushed through.
@Simon you are right, there is no Equalities Department, hence why there is no Secretary of State. However the Minister for Equalities and the Parliamentary Under Secretary do head up the office for Equalities, which is mostly seperate from the Home Office, which is its ‘host department’ so to speak.
On the other hand wikipedia (at least) says “The Government Equalities Office (GEO) is a United Kingdom government department.” I think it is fair to say that the office is somewhat anomalous in many respects.
@Simon Beard the office will now be in Culture with Maria Miller and Helen Grant (although she is shared with Justice) plus presumably Jo Swinson looking in from BIS…
“I didn’t vote LibDem to support minority interests”
I hope you didn’t vote Lib Dem to oppose them!
“I didn’t vote LibDem to support minority interests”
Please Keith say that this is not what you mean, but your finger slipped on the keyboard, hence what you have written can be easily misinterpreted?
The contrary statement, which in my case would be true, is that I did not leave the Labour Party and join the Liberal Democrats to maintain the inappropriate status quo that exists in our society where people are disadvantaged because of their diversity. I joined the Liberal Drmocrats because we state at every opportunity that we do “support minority interests”.
Naturally I am keen that this laudable rhetoric turns into robust action, and I have to say that with Jo having such a wide remit, there may be little time to explicitly progress such issues, although I would argue that there are no issues that do not benefit from running an equalities and diversity eye over them.
Ruwan Uduwerahe-Perera
English Party Diversity Champion
@ Dave Page &R Uduwerage-Perera
I am guessing he is objecting to the party being excluded from the whole-of-government activities, effectively being reduced to a cheerleader for the environment and equalities, and little else.
This is a country that likes adversarial politics with an electoral systemthat reinforces this, to win you need to represent the country across the spectrum of duties. This is not a consensual system that rewards single-issue political movements, so being sidelined from defence and FCO is symptomatic of an existential problem.
Keith,
Go on tell us what you meant by “I didn’t vote LibDem to support minority interests”, I feel that you should be afforded the opportunity to explain in your own words.
Ruwan Uduwerage-Perera
EMLD Executive
English Party Diversity Champion