Racists & Xenophobes: Threatening the economic prosperity of Britain.

StevieJ

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

Positive discrimination is illegal!

(Apart from in some disability cases)

Interesting, because I have seen a lot of fast tracking in industry, not to mention the female only nomination lists in parliamentary constituencies.

Labour used all-women shortlists to select candidates in half of all winnable seats for the 1997 general election, with the aim of reaching 100 women MPs post-election, a goal that was reached

However, in October 2009, the subsequent Conservative leader, David Cameron stated that the under-representation of ethnic minorities women and ethnic minorities was "a real problem for parliament and for my party", and reversed his opposition to AWS.[24] In February 2010 he indicated that he would impose AWS because the pace of change towards the selection of more women MPs had been too slow.[29] In 2009, Liberal Democrat party leader Nick Clegg stated that he would consider introducing all-women shortlists if the number of female MPs did not increase following the next election, but he did not see this as a longterm solution for the unrepresentative nature of parliament.[24]

Graham_Devon

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

Positive discrimination is illegal!

(Apart from in some disability cases)

Are you sure?

I'm sure not too long back Harriet Harman was actively encouraging positive discriminaiton?

Found it: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/7474801.stm

bendix

Graham_Devon wrote: »

Are you sure?

I'm sure not too long back Harriet Harman was actively encouraging positive discriminaiton?

Found it: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/7474801.stm

Being Harriet Harman should be illegal.

She's totally hatstand, that woman.

FTBFun

bendix wrote: »

Being Harriet Harman should be illegal.

She's totally hatstand, that woman.

She's my MP now, unfortunately.

olly300

Dave101t wrote: »

is being gentlemanly towards a lady positive discrimination?
or should i let the door slam in her face to be 'neutral'!

If you only hold the doors open for "ladies" then it's sex discrimination.

You should hold the door open for everyone regardless of gender as it's good manners.

olly300

StevieJ wrote: »

Interesting, because I have seen a lot of fast tracking in industry, not to mention the female only nomination lists in parliamentary constituencies.

Lots of companies and organisations tried it including some police forces on grounds of gender and race.

In the case of the police forces (sorry can't remember the forces involved) they were taken to court by White males and they lost.

Hence that mad woman Harman decided to change the law.

The thing is I know schools who did it with male teachers, and lots of schools do it on age of teachers they take on, but they do it intelligently so there isn't a massive paper trail.

bendix

olly300 wrote: »

Lots of companies and organisations tried it including some police forces on grounds of gender and race.

In the case of the police forces (sorry can't remember the forces involved) they were taken to court by White males and they lost.

Hence that mad woman Harman decided to change the law.

The thing is I know schools who did it with male teachers, and lots of schools do it on age of teachers they take on, but they do it intelligently so there isn't a massive paper trail.

Please don't call her Harriet Harman. Her correct name is Harriet Harperson.

torontoboy45

here's my little confessional:

I have more reasons than most to revile racism. my father (RIP) was an immigrant - albeit irish. he arrived in england at the age of 18, unskilled and in search of work in 1948. initially he settled in stepney and was taken aback at the overt hostility directed at him by locals (he could remember the 'no dogs, no blacks, no irish' signs in pub windows - not that he was too concerned about this because, unusually for an irishmen of his generation, he was teetotal). he found work as a labourer, working in the construction industry as the slow rebuilding of the post-war east end began.

before long he moved to wolverhampton, where he found racism almost as big an issue to 'foreigners' as it had been in stepney. but it was here that he got his chance to improve and took an apprenticeship in engineering. (presumably his employer spotted his potential and looked beyond his nationality).

it wasn't until 1974 that he ran into the really nasty side of racism. this was the yr of the birmingham pub bombings in which 21 innocent people died. by then he was working for the post office in hgv maintenance. his line manager - never keen on 'foreigners' - saw his chance and denounced my father as a 'republican b!!tard. he went further by insisting that his coleagues 'send him to coventry' (fearful for their jobs most of them did).

although he was never a republican he was sensitive to the charge and was forced to take long-term sick leave, having been diagnosed with depression. he never returned to the PO. his trade union convener did a good job in bringing this abuse to the attention of senior managment, who were evidently embarrassed by the matter and awarded my father an early pension. and that is where the matter was laid to rest. nobody was ever disciplined.

in later yrs he was phosophical about the incident. 'more good than bad' he would say about the english. or 'worse things have happened to better people'. he held on to his dignity and lived in england for the rest of his life. as a young man I felt his bitterness for him.

now ,after all this time, I recognise his course of action (i.e holding your head high and pitying the racist) was the correct one.

thanks for reading. it's saved the bother of going on the jeremy kyle show (or even worse, getting debriefed by piers morgan).

StevieJ

He should have moved to the North West, if you haven't got Irish in you there then you must be black or Polish In fact they have even made the scousers talk funny, like.

torontoboy45

StevieJ wrote: »

He should have moved to the North West, if you haven't got Irish in you there then you must be black or Polish In fact they have even made the scousers talk funny, like.

perhaps he should have. at the time there was plenty of work up there. he thought about manchester but that's as far as it got.