That said there is a call for political parties to make more of an effort to increase diversity of candidates for the next general election, so the ball is now in the court of those of us who are activists to make more of an effort. I'd rather this all happened through self sufficiency as it would be unpleasant for any MP to be accused of not reaching the House of Commons through anything other than on basis of convictions and character! Incidentally I do completely agree with some of the other recommendations, such as bursaries for those who cannot afford to get elected and limits on the amount of money candidates can spend on their election campaigns. I am inclined to agree with family friendly hours, but am concerned about how that might affect the need to scrutinize legislation going through the Commons. All in all though we need to see an overhaul at Westminster. It will include things that we might not like and we also have no real choice as the events of last summer have shown that we cannot continue like this.
Monday, January 11, 2010
MP Quotas Proposed
As I have mentioned before I am not a fan of quotas in legislatures and so this does fill me with some concern. I do agree we need more women and ethnic minority MP's, but this must be done via persuasion, not enforcement, as otherwise it will just put up not just the backs of those who we are seeking to persuade, but also those who might otherwise be on our side.
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No - quotas would be a very bad move and would in fact be discriminatory. There's every reason why ethnic groups should be represented proportionally and there is no reason why more women shouldn't be elected, but maybe the lifestyle of an MP is inconsistent with being a mother, even with a nanny - don't quite see how it would work otherwise.
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