A glance at the make-up of the new cabinet does not make great reading for equality campaigners. 86% male, 97% white, 59% privately educated and 69% oxbridge educated – hardly a great advert for our diverse and multicultural society, or indeed a state education. In their defence the Lib-Dems and Tories can point to Labour’s final years in office which shows a broadly similar pattern, with the exception of eductional background, in which there has been a definite backward step. Nick Clegg and David Cameron yesterday talking about aspiring to a new way of doing politics – a noble statement in itself, but surely we should start by making sure that politics is reflective of our society, not just in terms of political parties but in race, gender and class?
If you think this is just a historical problem that will fix itself over time then think again, we lag behind nearly every other developed nation in terms of political equality – in Spain 53% of their cabinet are women, 50% in Sweden, 38% in Germany, 33% in France – even in America it is 31%. Equality does not happen by chance, but by action and government has a responsibility to set an example.
What we need is someone who can champion equality. The last government had Harriet Harman, perhaps you didn’t like her, but you cannot question her credentials and only the churlish would diagree that Labour had a strong record on equalities , even if this didn’t translate to government. So who is going to pick up the mantle? Step forward Theresa May.
A woman who insisted on being called Chairman, rather than Chair, Chairwoman or, heaven forfend, Chairperson – trivial I know, but it is only the start. In the last parliament she voted to keep hereditary peers, against the racial hatred bill, against more family-friendly hours in parliament, against gay and lesbian couples adopting, against the equalisation of the age of consent. Instead of having a champion for equality and reform we have been given a regressive who is likely to put a halt on any expansion of equal rights.
If Liberalism is about empowering the individual, it should be about empowering all individuals and that mean standing up for the rights of minority groups and taking a lead on equality issues. This is an area of the coalition in which I have grave reservations, it is going to be up to Lib-Dem members and activists to keep shouting about equality issues and ensure the leadership are listening and dragging their Tory colleagues ever forward.
Alan Pomroy is a former member of the Labour Party who has recently joined the Liberal Democrats.
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26 Comments
I wonder if there is a link to the public schools problem. Where are the Etons and Westminsters – private schools of the same rank – for girls? People do not spend enough on their daughters’ education?
Perhaps we need to create an elite cadre of selective coed state schools so that some poor boys, poor girls and rich girls can have access to the same kind of advantage.
Btw, is reclaiming the word chairman for women wrong? Any particular reason?
Agreed – this is my biggest reservation too, along with immediate cuts. We’ve got some of our best policies into the coalition agreement and have got Cameron to drop some of his most objectionable ones, eg inheritance tax. The net result will really make a difference to people’s lives, especially the less well-off, so in many ways I’m very happy. Even on the issue of immediate cuts, I’m much more comfortable with David Laws wielding the axe – if anyone can turn it into a scalpel that doesn’t slide us back into recession, he can.
But Theresa May – meh, I’m trying to keep an open mind and give her a chance to show she’s changed her outlook. I remain sceptical, but for now will give her the benefit of the doubt. And anyway, I’d much rather have Theresa May acting in the knowledge that she has to keep us on board, than have Theresa May unconstrained and pandering to the Tory right.
A lot of people thought Obama bringing in Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State was going to be a disaster. She has actually been rather good. Ultimately, May will do and say what Cameron tells her to do – and Cameron will be influenced by the presence of Clegg and the others in the Cabinet.
Any politician who had a state education and knows what it is like to live in genuine hardship will have my respect. That personal experience will ensure that they know the reality behind the statistics from which they make their judgements..
In the end what really counts as far as I am concerned is what these politicians stand for. It is not hard to imagine that for anyone with a privileged background, a move straight into the Tory party would simply help them maintain the status quo that has served them so well. If instead they join a centre left party, we should respect that their motives may well be different and more honourable.
One of my hopes is that since the publication of the Spirit Level, which presented objective scientific evidence that rich societies that have greater relative equality function better than rich societies that are more unequal, that the new government will be a lot more successful in tackling this than the previous government.
My concern is that although New Labour failed in reducing relative inequality, a centre right government will be even less willing to do so.
I hope I am proved wrong. But that is up to us, we have to make the case, and at least we are in a position to do this.
“it is going to be up to Lib-Dem members and activists to keep shouting about equality issues”
Don’t you think that’s a bit difficult, when Liberal MPs themselves aren’t wildly representative, and the party has so far resisted any attempts at selection quotas?
While I’m not entirely at ease with the idea of such quotas, I think it’s naive to think that a machinery that is currently dominated by the very groups you mention is suddenly going to throw up a rainbow raft of candidates of all colours, sexes and educational backgrounds.
By all means shout, but don’t be surprised if our own representation is thrown back in our faces.
As a non-privately educated, non-Oxbridge graduate it may be that I’m biased but I really see that as being far more important to diversity and equality than race or gender. Growing up without money and attending a state school is going to be far more impactful on your life and your wider perspectives than being privileged and privately educated and just happening to be a woman. That probably wasn’t the case when the Harmans of this world were developing their outlook but I believe it is now.
Not a defense but a riposte to any of those mythical Labour trolls: ‘cos it was done before is *not* a valid defense.
Yet, Labour produced the first non-Oxbridge educated graduate PM, and has several senior figures who didn’t even go to university – and boy were John “he thinks he deserves two jags?” Prescott and Michael “the part of Glasgow where Ah grew-up made the Gorbals look like Centreparks, youse greedy ungrateful b*st*rds!” Martin were made to remember this!
That said, the Tories both produced the first State/grammar school educated PM, and also one who didn’t go to university (raising this point, a few weeks ago, got me called a Tory troll).
I have grave reservations about May, but her calling herself a “Chairman” ain’t one of them. Even worse that “Chairperson” is “manageress”.
Jon, class is a huge issue for our party but to suggest that ‘just happening to be a woman’ doesn’t make that much difference is ludicrous. Unlike the other parties we have NO women MPs in their forties (a peak age-group for male careers surely), NO women MPs with young children, 20 male MPs in the 36-49 age group and NO women. As many MPs called Stephen as we have mothers in the Commons. The imbalance is grotesque.
Am I the only person who thinks it’s a good thing that our leaders come from the best universities in the country?
Ruth – apologies that was badly worded by me. I do think it’s indefensible that we have so few women MPs.
But I do feel that superficial diversity – i.e. gender, race – does not in of itself lead to a greater diversity of opinions, perspectives etc.
Richard, that isnt the problem per se – it’s that those universities are seen to draw their students from a narrow social band. Same thing with the public schools, because New Labour gets its brood from Grammar Schools, still selective and elitist but apparently it’s ok because they’re state funded elitist institutions, according to Diane “Fuck you Lib Dems, we’d rather lose power than share it… oh, and I sent my own son to private school” Abbott.
I think it’s a problem on two levels: 1) people will accuse the government of not being able to understand poverty etc if they haven’t experienced it. I don’t agree with this, otherwise we should only have poor, disabled, abused MPs just to make sure we cover all the bases. 2) it’s an issue of perception, because if our parliament looks like only a small number of people in society, many people who don’t look like them will feel they cannot aspire to being in parliament/government. Don’t entirely agree with this either, but it doesn’t help that most of them are men, and only one is not white (the cabinet).
Jon – playing a very dangerous game there suggesting that gender and race are ‘superficial’ diversity factors. I believe they are fundamental and all-pervasive. It is crucial that we find proactive ways to tackle all these areas of deficiency in our representation and government.
I guess I’m going to lose this argument, but I might at least add my voice, so here goes:
Why does is matter what the skin colour, or gender, of our MPs is? This is one of the criticisms that probably pisses me off the most. The idea of our parliament is that it represents the *views* of its constituents as best possible, not their skin colour or gender. A white male can represent the views of a black female perfectly well, and vice versa. I am against discrimination. Whether you decide to throw the word ‘positive’ in front of it or not is irrelevant. It’s discrimination, and it’s wrong. The party has been right to resist stuff like ‘all-woman’ or ‘all-black’ shortlists. I’d have to seriously consider my membership of the Lib Dems if we went down that route.
Look, you give people equal opportunities. That’s fine. But to start saying that because it seems that minorities and/or woman just haven’t come along and been good enough to be the best candidates, you should give them an unfair advantage, is just wrong. It’s racist and sexist, and I find it highly ironic that those who would claim they oppose discrimination would actively promote such obvious discrimination. How about this: I’m a white male, and I don’t want to be discriminated against. OK?
Our parliament should not feel the need to accurately reflect the gender and racial proportions in society. It may happen naturally, but I think it’s ludicrous to say that this should be some kind of requirement, or necessary outcome. Put it the other way round: if our parliament were 90% black, I’d be OK with that; as long as they represented the *views* of the constituents as best possible. May the best candidate win, not the one with the right genetic traits. Ugh.
Has anyone noticed that Lynn Featherstone has now been appointed as a Minister for Equality in the `Coalition Government’ and Sarah Teather appointed to a post in Education?
I am absolutely certain that both Lynn and Sarah will take regular soundings from the women back benchers the legions of L/D Women supporters,Baroness Shirley Williams and the myriad of womens` led campaigning groups across the Country.
I believe that Mr Cameron should free Theresa May from her Equalities tasks as she will be preoccupied with the heavy mantle of the Home Office : and in particular reform of the Prisons ought to be a separate agenda as the UK now has over 100,000 convicted people serving sentences in overcrowded prisons.
There is an unfortunate high bias towards male Oxbridge educated Cabinet Members but remember that Nick Clegg who will be the Liberal glue that holds Government together for 5 years, took Social Anthropology at Univ.and speaks 5 languages and whose mother was in a POW Camp in WW2.
The best progressive law that could help women would be PR.
Voting Reform would motivate more women to stand for Parliament and it would also help all women voters to support someone favoured on individual merit, in the next Election.
Personal experience usually clouds objectivity, causing people to be stuck in their own past rather than understanding reality. It motivates single-issue campaigners, but it’s a handicap for people who have to make decisions.
Geez, what is wrong with you people? This isn’t 1850. I went to a state school, and not a particularly brilliant one. I got my degree from Imperial because I liked their course focus better; I could have gone to Cambridge if I wanted. University entrance is not based on private education. Just because you didn’t get in doesn’t mean it’s about wealth or class.
I don’t really want anybody going near a government post until they have at least some grasp of what “science” is, and how it is different from “television”. A good education is a good start.
girls can go to westminster school…at 16.
I think it does make a difference to your life if you are a woman, a different race to the the majority…all sorts of things make a huge difference…and many people without money cannot get anything than other than a state education. Although I am against discrimination I think that all women lists have to happen..so that one day they don’t need to happen.
I don’t think men do always understand the experience of women…I was asked not to talk about feminist issues when lecturing in art college (by a man), the very same day he dropped into the lecture and we were discussing “feminist” issues. I had to point out that all the students were female and that included mature students, they had questions about art/design & craft contextual studies. It was a student led discussion.I don’t think he ever discrimanated against anyone, but he didn’t understand the experinece of many females, didn’t understand the questions that arose.
The amount of racism and sexism (that includes against men too) amazes me. But it exists. The more roll models the bette,. and if that has to include some positive discrimination for a bit, then so be it.
How does every one have equal opportunity in our society? I don’t see it. Just visit a range of schools in say Cardiff (as I have done). It’s heart breaking.
@ Jez
I see where you’re coming from and of course I agree with this statement, but the question is not really whether a white guy can represent a black guy or a man represent a woman. Rather, the questions is why is parliament so unrepresentative of the population? Why are there so few female / BME / disabled / state school MPs? It won’t wash to just assume the candidates from these backgrounds weren’t as good, because there’s no reason for that to be the case – unless one buys into the idea that white men are somehow genetically better equipped to govern, which I don’t think for a moment that you or anyone else here would agree with. Statistically, it’s highly unlikely (in a sample size of 650) that such an over-representation of white males would happen just by chance.
Is it discrimination (conscious or subconscious) on the part of candidate selection panels? Is it that candidates from other backgrounds see parliament as an old (white, private school) boys’ club and feel they would be unwelcome? From the evidence I’ve seen, I suspect a combination of both factors, but it’s a not-so-shining example of how far we still have to go in equalising opportunity in this country. It’s not just a problem in parliament, but parliament should be setting an example.
@ Patrick Smith – yes, I’m very pleased with the appointments of Lynne as especially Sarah. I’m sure they’ll both be great and will tirelessly fight the equality corner in both departments.
The amount of racism and sexism (that includes against men too) amazes me. But it exists. The more roll models the bette,. and if that has to include some positive discrimination for a bit, then so be it.
Utter crap. The way to promote equality is not to practice inequality/discrimination. And don’t use the word ‘positive’ in front of it, it looks stupid. You might as well say you’re promoting ‘positive’ Naziism.
Depends if oiks like Martin or Prescott or Major can get into them.
Jez:
I don’t know any other way. And I can actually argue quite successfully against positive discrimination, I feel very uncomfortable that it seems to be the only way. Where is this wonderful world where there is no practice of inequality/discrimination? That is of course how it should be. But we don’t even have equal opportunity.
I know plenty of young women who don’t consider careers in areas they see as male. Oh I do know one way that works well: single sex schools. Girls in all girl schools (state schools) see many more possibilities for themselves in areas that are considered by others to be too male and not appropriate or open to them.
I think Catherine puts forward some very good points.
It’s pretty simple. If as a party we have no barriers to diversity, and if all people are equal, then our party will tend to resemble the population at large. The fact that it doesn’t indicates that at least one of those assumptions is wrong.
I’m reasonably certain that the problem isn’t with our selection process – I am led to believe that our candidates are selected with little regard to race, gender etc. However, certainly the problem in my local party is that there’s a huge imbalance in people putting themselves forward for selection. I’m looking at ways for my local party to take proactive steps to encourage a wider diversity of candidates for selection.
The party does already run excellent diversity training at conferences, and I’ll keep banging on about this because I think that every local party chair would benefit from it – I’m on the exec of a diversity SAO and still found benefit. Perhaps Issan Ghazni can get word out to all the LP chairs through the regional execs about it?
What would be nice would be if the anti-women shortlist brigade supported measures short of positive discrimination which would help women candidates eg rights to maternity leave. I know of two councillors, one PPC (me!) where lack of maternity leave was THE factor in standing down. If, but only if, we make structural changes to help women we can avoid all-women shortlists.
I think Winston said it best above, shout all you like but how do you answer the likely retort that the LibDems have NOT ONE black or Asian MP compared to the Tories 11?
Lynne Featherstone has her work cut out for her as an equalities minister…
I know a number of Oxbridge grads who didn’t go to private school. I know a number of Oxbridge grads who’ve failed to secure employment they wanted because they weren’t good enough. We should judge these people on their own performance, not on the name of their school.
Will I or any of my colleagues join a political party, hopefully increasing the diversity of the parties and subsequently our parliaments? Are you having a laugh?
For almost thirty years I’ve listened to politicians berate me and those around me. I was made redundant at 16 after only seven months in work, so off my own bat with no encouragement from anyone, I defied my father and aimed for an education. Guess what? A kid thrown on the scrap heap, a council house kid whose teachers knew her life was ruined under Thatcher before it had even started made it to one of the top universities in the country to study science! Suddenly I could dream. A working class kid from a single parent home, the kind so despised by Thatcher and her chums was going to have a career. You’ve no idea just how proud my brother was, or how frightened my mum was about her little girl going into a world she knew nothing of.
What did politicians do? They began complaining about how expensive education was. You berated me again for daring to graduate with a really good degree and being in need of a job while this country was still struggling to find work for those who needed it and those who wanted it, so with no business sense or money to start one I took more education to avoid the dole and again there was still no job for me so I left the bloody country like so many others.
When my contract ended and I came home, guess what? There was a recession on and the politicians, the people responsible for our economy berated me again for not having a job, complained endlessly about the lack of training and the lack of education among the unemployed so again, still with no business sense or money but with a bucket load of good science behind me I went back to education hoping to avoid the worst of the recession. There were lawyers, engineers, teachers, humanites, business, language graduates all on that degree course doing what they were told to do, getting more education in order to be competitive in the work place and staying off the dole where they would be berated to the point of passing out! By the time I was back looking for work, I was too old, over qualified or simply ignored while the politicians complained and whinged as usual. I was utterly humiliated, I felt no better than a criminal and my family were so confused at what had been happening to me year in, year out. Where was the career they’d imagined? Where was the little car, maybe even a little flat? The nightmare was happening to a lot of people, not just me.
Finally, finally I found work. The pay was minimum wage level but it was a job. Two higher degrees in the sciences but I was earning so little I couldn’t afford a new pair of knickers and bus fare to work in the same month! I survived it. I know of others who ended their lives as the ultimate escape. As the years went by I began to live life more like an adult after a while rather than being the eternal student, a role I really didn’t want.
Guess what? Yes, along with politicians the world over ours did it again, there was another recession and this new bunch are just about to pile in, creating even more unemployment. So many adults in this country have a cloud over their heads, the fear of unemployment. And now you are whinging that you aren’t getting good enough candidates!
Well, there’s a surprise! When don’t politicians whinge and berate the public?
And all through the election what was the politicians’ favourite song? Education, education, education. On the B side was ‘children, children, children’. What? And when was I supposed to be able to afford to have one of them? That’s a laugh. I’m so glad I don’t actually like children because if I did I’d might very well have ended up one of those detested benefit mums or be a woman in a really distraught state.
We’re simply tired now and we are watching the next cycle of it beginning, the next generation having the very same thing inflicted on them. Politicians are supposed to lead us, provide us with hope, guide us to safe passages through our economic lives while keeping us safe.
What a miserable bunch. No sooner do you stop fighting with one country, you’re off fighting with another, you all make plenty of money as soon as you are elected and you just don’t stop whinging. Whinging! What about? Any more of this fighting with other countries and you’ll being having an ASBO handed to you all! You can’t even sort out a decent Equalities minister. When she mucks up, and she will, you’ll all whinge. Again. The last lot let the banded bank robbers make off with so much loot. Most of us fully expect the next bunch to do likewise. Once it has gone, you’ll do the usual thing: whinge at us.
We’ve got enough misery thank you very much. It’s anti-depressants we need to get us through the latest mess you lot created instead of properly doing the jobs you are all paid to do, you’ll be at the same old whinging and berating the people who never seem to please you. We’re told you are all, in all parties, professional politicians rather than plumbers, chefs or whatever who have decided to have a go at making our country better, safer and more pleasant for us all. Professional whingers is a better description! We’ve our lives we need to salvage, to protect from you lot, not a night out with arguing, fighting and whinging no-laughs, no competency politicians who’ll resort to patronising the new-comers, is it?
Do you really need to ask, to wonder why you can’t get a decent range of candidates, people from different walks of life? The party bosses will just whinge if we refuse to go out on a pub crawl with the looting bankers! Really, they will.
Didn’t your mum teach you anything. If all you do is moan, whinge and fight. No one will want to play with you, none of you ever seem to be happy and none of you ever seem to take responsibility for yourselves but instead blame everyone else for the mess you made… no wonder you’ve got no pals!
The entire political spectrum has got a lot of work and a lot of bridges to mend with a huge number of the voters if you want to increase your membership.
Now the LibDems just might pull off a less whinging, less berating government. Strangely, getting into bed with the Tories gives me nightmares. That might look like a lovely jar of sweeties, but I’m pretty sure it is barbiturates not smarties. While you politicos test the waters the rest of us are going to make the best of what we’ve got pray, yes even the atheists might pray for the sake of sharing in a national, no global experience, just to hold onto their jobs and that maybe, just maybe the baraging and whinging will stop at least for a week or so.
Alternatively, couldn’t it be possible to send all our politicians off to a conference. Then make sure the ashcloud blocks access to UK air space for the summer?
Yes I too was very dsappointed to see that Theresa May has been appointed as equality champion for this government. I have been working in equality for many years and have always been enthusiastic about it so far. i think the Labour government did a lot to support it with the different legislation put into place. I watch with interest to see what will happen now. Theresa May has not got a good record but the I think many people will be watching to see what she does and ready to pounce on her if she makes one wrong move.