Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Where are the women?!!
Party politics aside, the new Clegg-Cam cabinet apparently will have only one, or possibly two women in it. Of course, when the important jobs have to be divided up between parties they are given to the men in suits.
There are 139 women MPs in this parliament, that's over a fifth and a record number - there should definitely be more in top jobs. I've been listening to the radio all morning and haven't heard a single mention of this glaring discrepancy.
There are 139 women MPs in this parliament, that's over a fifth and a record number - there should definitely be more in top jobs. I've been listening to the radio all morning and haven't heard a single mention of this glaring discrepancy.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Alison P on
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Totally agree Maddy.
I had exactly the same thoughts last night watching all those shiny faced excited new boys in power.
I mentioned it to a colleague this morning and he said that apparently the Lib Dem Chief of Staff is a woman. So there we go... I await the announcement of the cabinet posts with interest.
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Permalink Reply by Kit on
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The Con-dem Cabinet
Total ministers – 29 (24 Tories, 5 LibDems)
Women – 4
BME – 1
Openly gay – 0
Public schoolboys – 16
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Permalink Reply by Birdy_Too on
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This from the freedom and fairness coalition? The three most powerful people in the country are white, male, hetro, privately educated, from one class (upper) and from the same privileged school.
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... and perhaps most significant of all: 20 out of 29 educated at Oxbridge
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I don't want to get all statistical but I don't think the way you've worked this out really illustrates the problem. 8% unrepresentative of women doesn't sound like a lot - but in reality what it means that one in five MPs is female but only one in eight of the cabinet. Another way of looking at this is to say that the number of women in the cabinet is only 62% of what you'd expect to see if everyone had an equal chance of being selected (13% divided by 21%).
But totally agree with your point about what this actually translates to in terms of numbers in the cabinet!
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Permalink Reply by Clive Carter on
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Are the girls here?
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Permalink Reply by Narendra Makanji on
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Same question could be addressed to the outcome of Haringey Borough Elections. Even in this self-acclaimed diverse borough, only 22 out of 57 councillors are women. The Black and Ethnic Minority representation is even more wanting.At least Tottenham Constituency- in which HoL is included- has returned a Black MP.
Ironically, this Forum does not seem to welcome this, judging by the amount of slagging off that Black and ethnic minority reps seem to subjected whether they are David Lammy or Gina Adamou or Brian Haley.
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Permalink Reply by HoL Site Admin on
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Thanks for your contribution Narendra. However, that's a pretty racy accusation which we absolutely refute.
It's true that David Lammy has been criticised on the site, but he's the constituency MP so you's expect that. I think any criticism levelled at him has been levelled at many MPs, particularly at this time when MPs have been coming under fire.
No councillor has been singled out for undue criticism. The site and some site members reviewed the records of all candidates, but this was done without regard to party, gender, race, religion or anything else.
We do not understand your criticism. To make terrible accusations like that, you will have to substantiate them with evidence.
PS: Are you the Narendra Makanji who's an ex-Labour councillor?
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I must admit Narendra, that is an ill thought out post with incredibly lame excuses. If someone doesn't support a black or ethnic candidate then they're racist or it could possibly be that they think there are better people to do the job, is that allowed?
Well I slagged off Tristram Hunt and Carolyn Alexander too, so I must be sexist and a toffist as well!
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The logic of this is that one can never criticise BME representatives because they either can never be wrong or are above criticism. I for one couldn't care less what race someone was: its what they say and how they behave that matters.
I would question the effectiveness of David Lammy's feeble proposals on gambling reform, irrespective of whether he was white, grey or pink. This is not "slagging off". It''s legitimate. I believe that even BME members can make mistakes and get it wrong.
Haringey Council is currently before the Court of Appeal, defending against the claim that they failed to discharge their obligations under Section 71 of the Race Relations Act.
Race relations is something that Haringey pays lip service to; picking and choosing when they take it seriously. "Racist" is often an insult that is wielded by majority group Members of all colours – for purely political purposes.
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