Discrimination is wrong, in every way. This is something we all agree on, right? So how is tacking the word “positive” on to it making it any better?
What Harman is proposing is utterly disgusting. The very idea that firms should discriminate in favour of female and ethnic minority job candidates is no better than than discrimination in favour of middle-aged white men.
Discrimination in order to increase diversity and to “help organisations such as the police better reflect the communities they serve” isn’t a Good Thing in the slightest. In fact, it is very much a Bad Thing.
What this sort of “positive discrimination” does is prevent the best person for the job from getting it, regardless of their race or gender. ANnndhis drives up resentment among those who see others getting jobs and promotions not because they are good at what they do or deserve it, but because they either lack of a penis or have different coloured skin.
Harman seems to think that selection by qualification or suitability is an old-fashioned and quaint idea. She says that were it not for all-women shortlists, it’s likely she would not have become an MP - an argument against “positive discrimination” if I’ve every seen one.
It’s not possible to justify Harman’s idea of positive discrimination without having a twisted view of society and jumping through massive hoops of self-delusion.
Harman, and her boss belong to a different generation, fight yesterday’s wars and the pope remains, to the best of my knowledge, Catholic (check with Cranmer who keeps an eye on these things).
Just like the London campaign with Boris, the last refuge of the desperate Labourite is to try and salami-slice the electorate. That attempt failed, and this one goes way beyond pathetic.
As an aside, I’m curious about is the BBC (Radio 4) hourly quoted example in their news spots of “a primary school with too few male teachers” who could discriminate in favour of a male candidate. Is this what the proposed legislation actually says? because it didn’t sound like it when Harthing gave her side of things. I know the proposed EU Constitution used the term ‘under-represented sex’ (not sure about the Lisbon rehash) but I suspect the subtlety of this fairly unsubtle point may be beyond Harman and her ilk.
This is silly everyone knows that if you have more than one woman in an office they start backstabbing each other.
Now that’s just ridiculous, Baht At.
Pretty much all of my old department and half of my current one are women, and there is no backstabbing at all.
Quote:
“What this sort of “positive discrimination” does is prevent the best person for the job from getting it, regardless of their race or gender”
Unfortunately, if you are an ethnic minority and you are the best person for the job still you will not get it in most of the cases. aPrejudice is still alive and kicking….