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Right Paine: The Rights and Wrongs of Man
When the heroic Tom Paine laid out his mainfesto* The Rights of Man it was for a species - men, women, and children - and certainly not for the male exclusively. * In bite sized bits HERE.
Iain Dale points to a blog - now running for six months - which takes Paine's inspired treatise's name in vain.
The latest, linked post, with its click-to-enlarge graphic below, suggests a programme for a Minister for Men.
Quite a sorry state we're in isn't it? We must surely get more men in to make law and judge it. The fiendish rule by women must be ended now! Just consider the statistics on where the power lies:
Law Lords: Baroness Hale of Richmond is alone and first ever woman/12
Lords Justices/HCJs/HoD: Ten women, 128 men
House of Lords (hereditory): Three of 92
House of Lords (cronies): 136 women, 604 men
House of Commons: 128 women, 518 men
Cabinet: Eight women, 15 men (all-time record)
UK MEPs: 17 women, 61 men
UK Councillors: to follow
FTSE 100 Main Board Directors: 77 women of more than 1,000
Main source: CAWP Observatory.
Yes, yes, yes. It is easy to see how this deep and wide institutional prejudice is keeping men down. Far too many women in legislature and judiciary.
The boardroom situation was covered by Meg Munn who was UNPAID as Minister for Women and Minister for Equality for a good few years - the ONLY unpaid Minister. [New Information suggests it was months not years and she was not the only one.] Meg has the portfolio for men's issues too and I've seen her being lobbied on them and being on top of the brief.
Comments on any of the twelve points of the RoM Programme very welcome. Will be blogging some of them before too long.
12 comments:
If Ian Dale had been writing in the 18th Century he'd have been very anti-Thomas Paine. Written out of British history. I bought the book for a quid at a Texaco garage (those copyright free classics on cheap paper, a Lion Bar and 8 gallons on pump 4)...it's very much of its time.
The last point about all-women shortlists it is already illegal, because it is discrimination (positive discrimination is still discrimination). It's not been challenged in the courts. I'm not going to do it because until political bodies have 50 per cent women they are not representative.
Not sure it is illegal. Positive action is allowed is it not? Rhetorical question. It is.
If we regard being a PPC as being on a training programme with no guarantee of a job and we use the exclusions of the RRA and SDA allowing positive action on trainees - without guarantee of a post - we find ourselves covered.
Positive action on trainees where under-represented in the role they're being trained for is COMPLETELY LEGAL.
I didn't buy the book I waited for Chris Paul to post a link to the full text - FOC. Surely he has some T Paine trivia though?
See u in the European Court with my briefs. Well maybe we'll go to the Hillary Step, buy beer, argue it out and not pay lawyers. I reckon it's still discrimination disguised as action. PPC not a training programme or a job but the damage has been done at the shortlisting stage.
My prediction before 2010:
a) all women shortlists are going to get challenged in the court as illegal. One for the Daily Mail and a middle England Tory Club I think.
b) the transfer window of football players in summer and January will go to the courts - restraint of trade.
AWS's were declared illeagal before 1997 and selections had to be rerun I think. Think this happened to HB in salford and Pola Uddin in BGB one made it the other didn't.
Labour then passed a law to make sure that they are legal.
There you go Lorenzo, PPC Parbury has already been to Strasbourg and found stable door has been deliberately opened again by those despicable Nu Lab types.
Slight correction about Meg Munn - she was unpaid as Minister for Women and Equality for 6 months only (not years), and she wasn't the only unpaid Minister at the time.
Mmmm. I have heard different on the Meg Munn question. Anyway - surely the most significant Minister not to be paid? And surely the height of stupidity given the brief?
Chris your source probably didn't know that Meg received backpay - so 6 months unpaid was all it was in the end.
Agree entirely with you that it wasn't clever politics for this particular brief to be an unpaid one for any length of time. (The Tories enjoyed baiting Labour about it, and they then could avoid deciding what their position would be on some equality issues.)
It's the kind of thing that makes you embarrassed to be male.
(BTW I belive political parties are excluded from equality legislation.)
Thomas Paine trivia: Well, I know that the Ancoats-born lefty playwright Trevor Griffiths, whose cousin Danny was a Karate, Qi Gong and Contactmag entrepreneur until his untimely death a few years ago, has had a treatment and a screenplay about Paine for some years now ... Griffiths did the screenplay for Reds and lots of hard hitting stage plays like The Comedians and TV like Bill Brand.
I'll try and renew contact.
Tompaine.com(mon sense) is one of the better sites of web discourse in the USA.
So comrades
Are we going to propose that ALL shortlists for Manchester council seats should be all women until Labour group is 50-50.
I think we should - but I guess we'll need to allow sitting male councillors to be on the lists to have any chance of getting it agreed.
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