Monday 3 August 2009

Hang On Harman

Harriet Harman was in the Sunday Times yesterday, telling us all that the Labour Party should always have a woman in either the leaders' or deputy leaders' job. According to Ms Harman, men "cannot be left to run things on their own".

I'm not surprised that Ms Harman, of all the members of the current government, has come up with this. Her reputation for what I would describe, without a touch of irony, as overbearing feminine statements, long precedes this article. Yet it only makes that reputation all the more deserved.

The Labour Party should no more reserve a top spot for a woman than schools should reserve one drinking fountain for Afro-Caribbean students and another for White British students. Does Ms Harman seriously believe that people are more qualified for a position based solely on their gender? Or is she simply out on that age-old adage, that it's time to take an eye for an eye, and that women have to be given a 'leg-up' through legislation and actions such as this to enable them to get on an equal footing?

Personally, I can see no logical reason why one should reserve such posts for anyone based on purely personal characteristics. The focus of the governments' equal rights legislation should be on creating a truly level playing field, not trying to tip it one way or the other in the name of righting past wrongs. Simply because my ancestors were sexist to her ancestors does not mean she should be sexist towards me, any more than it means I should pay for the slave-holding practices of my descendants. I find both such things intolerable, horrible and frankly thoughtless, but I am being told that I must pay the price for their existence.

I am sorry that Ms Harman has come to the stage where she looks down on men as being incapable of managing anything larger than a small whelk stall. I sincerely hope that the House of Lords butchers the Equality Bill and removes all the clauses that people like Ms Harman cling to dearly. Its' time to write some truly Equal Rights legislation for this country, not something tainted with the endless yearning of the left to take an eye for an eye. Perhaps they should remember what another socialist once told the world, a long time ago:

"An eye for an eye will only end up making the whole world blind." - M. Ghandhi.

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