Stale, male and pale

quite funny - but an insulting comment. White males who aren't 25 can also be good at their jobs.

do i mean writ large?
anyway, it absolutely demonstrates the blindness (wilful perhaps?) to his privilege

that, right there, is privilege writ large

"your" not "you" Grr.

www.telegraph.co.uk/men/10968805/Is-being-a-middle-aged-white-male-so-bad-Prime-Minister.html

Middle aged male (Max Davidson) hurting…

Extract - final par: "There will be men of my generation, still in their prime, still with a lot to give, who will be feeling a little less valued this morning. They hoped they were living in the land of fair play, where people were promoted on performance, not on their looks, and that to demote anyone on grounds of sex or age was an affront to the values of the tribe.Now they are not so sure."

I feel you pain Max, truly I do. After all, we women (promoted only on looks according to you) have been feeling the pain of being "a little less valued" for the last, oh, 2,000 years or so.

Meritocracy is meaningless where only a specific group is given the opportunity to prove their merit, or only their merit is recognised

Perfectly put.

ie to explain the status quo...
Option 1: women are a bit crap and the current male bias in roles of power is correct
Option 2: women are being prevented from realising their full potential

Option 1 is clearly bollocks.

"Meritocracy is meaningless where only a specific group is given the opportunity to prove their merit, or only their merit is recognised"

This is great, I've been trying to find the words to say to counter the 'Meritocracy' argument I've been hearing a lot of.

You obviously have excellent taste Trapper

Some good names there. I'm a conservative voter, but Harriet would still get a place in my 'dream cabinet'

by that i mean that they don't feel threatened by experts so they want to control them

i would like mps who aren't afraid of experts

And Yvette Cooper, forgot her

MPs who appear to have their heads screwed on and appear to actually care about something beyond the end of their noses:

Tom Watson
Simon Danszczuk
Harriet Harman
Gloria De Piero
Stella Creasy
Meg Hillier

Yes they are all Labour MPs - I can't bear the thought of choosing a Tory cabinet.

Which elected MPs would you put in the cabinet then Lotta?

'Really, REALLY? They want to use a "meritocracy" argument and expect it to not be wildly offensive?? It makes me Very Cross (DH may have been on the receiving end of this rant a few times!)'

It's a good rant and well worth having!

'Best person for the job' makes me laugh. It's either that or pull my hair out. Do ANY of the current Cabinet strike anyone as the best possible people to fill those roles? Or even the 10th best person to do their respective jobs? Are we supposed to believe that everyone who holds a position of power and influence got there on merit? REALLY??????? Shiny Dave who couldnt lead or manage his way out of a paper bag? Gormless Gideon? BORIS JOHNSON??????

Please give us all a nice long break

Petula and where just what I was trying to say on the AIBU thread about the media presentation if the reshuffle, except you said it better.

Hehe - this is funny because it's spot on!

How can people expect, that accompanying the first shoots of breaking free a history of patriarchal domination, women won't rejoice in the barbed derision that now meets middle-aged white men. Whilst celebrating everything that is female (and of colour and gay etc), we should not hesitate to stick the boot into the oppressors. The patriarchy's demise can be hastened through ridicule of its representatives and pithy slogans like 'stale, male and pale' are absolutely right. As has been said above, to say that this gleeful barracking is hypocritical or offensive in some way is to deny that power should be representative.

When it comes to Tory cabinet ministers, to be honest I'd rather they were 'stale'. It's the ones like Gove who have bright ideas that I fear. "Let's reorganise education completely!" "Let's privatise everything!"

Oh yes AICM, how very dare people want those who are supposed to represent them be actually representative of them.

"Meritocracy is meaningless where only a specific group is given the opportunity to prove their merit, or only their merit is recognised"

Yy!

I accept I was being over sensitive about the "stale = ageist" thing.

Meritocracy is meaningless where only a specific group is given the opportunity to prove their merit, or only their merit is recognised

Michael Gove is 46, AICM. I don't think the stale refers to his age.

Yy where.