Making Harriet happy

Harriet Harman represents almost everything that Tories hate most about the Labour party – chippy, grating, de haut en bas, blinded by ideology. 

And yet… You’ve got to admire her consistency. She has been a strident, annoying, consistent supporter of ‘downtrodden minorities’ throughout her entire political career. I imagine she regards the Bill she presented to the House of Commons this week as the pinnacle of her political achievements.

There’s been a massive amount of ranting against the Bill (Philip Davies, Tory MP for Shipley, was particularly foam-flecked about it) – so what does it actually say?

As far as I can tell, some pretty good stuff. Companies can be forced to publish anonymised pay scales – good. I once worked somewhere where I knew for an absolute fact that male employees were paid more than female ones for exactly the same job: I was told that because I was female and therefore would have a husband, there was no need for a pay rise.

Refusing a job or insurance or services to someone because of their age will be illegal – good. Refusing medical intervention or something similar for medical or other substantive reasons won’t be affected; simply drawing an arbitrary line will be banned.

Employers will be able to recruit to balance their workplace. Again – why not? All the jobs I’ve ever done, the company would get to a final shortlist of people who could all do the job, and the offer was made based on how that person would integrate into the office. This is just permitting something that happens already – to be fair, as a Conservative I would generally argue we don’t need yet another law, but at least there will be fewer ridiculous lawsuits.

If she means what she says, this is actually all about that perennial Conservative theme, sharing responsibility – state, employers and individuals working together; making decisions at the most localised level possible, based on reality rather than diktats from on high. I imagine that this would make her shriek with indignation, but instead of whinging about an ‘anti white man’ law, we should be supporting (a lot of) it, and making sure that we practice what we preach.

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