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Wrong way to solve imbalance
Equality, at least in the eyes of the Labour Party, appears to work in many wondrous ways.
So back in the Nineties, faced with an imbalance between male and female MPs, it quite rightly set out to shake things up. Nothing wrong with that.
A dynamic was introduced to help it achieve its targets which involved changing time-honoured rules on selection. The upshot was the creation of female-only selection lists to make absolutely certain women got a fair crack of the Parliamentary whip.
The move caused uproar, as well it might.
By addressing it in this manner surely it was indulging in discrimination? The antithesis of everything the Labour movement is all about.
Party leaders argued that this was positive discrimination, as they would. But effectively in constituencies where there is a female sitting MP, the seat passes from woman to woman in perpetuity, so long as it is held.
Such is the position in the Calder Valley where Chris McCafferty, who was selected in the 1990s from an all-female list, will retire at the next General Election. And where the contest has already begun to find her successor.
These measures have had a marked effect nationally and the numbers of men and women representing Labour in Westminster now is 257 to 94 respectively. A far greater percentage than the main opposition parties.
Maybe one day it will be 50-50, as it should be.
But this is not Utopia, and 50 per cent of the population of the Calder Valley, and other constituencies bound by these rules, have every right to feel unhappy.
Achieving equality is one thing. But surely, for it to mean anything, it must be arrived at in a democratic and even-handed manner?
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Saturday 11 February 2012
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