are all women shortlists a good idea

[lucydogz]

this

Rachel Reeves saying that, where a Labour female MP has stood down, the party will have all-women short lists. Obviously, where a male Labour MP stands down, the short list wll be mixed.

Just as I think, well, I'm not keen on Corbyn, but we need a strong opposition, along comes something like this. Surely Labour should be looking for the best candidates at a time like this? If I was a voter, I'd want my choice of candidate based on ability, not gender.

No this isn't good, it's sexist, they should be looking for the best candidates. Surely if this continues labour will eventually be all female because once a woman takes a seat no man can ever take it and if too many women get in are they going to reverse it so that some seats are exclusively male?

You cannot BE sexist against men, they are not the oppressed sex.

Much like you cannot be racist towards white people.

Just how oppressed is Harriet Harmon? Seriously.

I have sons. I'd clearly be mad to vote Labour!

if too many women get in

Given that we currently have 196 female MPs and 453 MPs I don't think that's anything that needs to be worried about for a while.

I have a son sprout. How is that relevant. Surely rights for women are a good thing for everyone?

And Harriet Harmon?

Just how oppressed is Harriet Harmon

Ffs, you can't look at it on an individual basis. Women as a class are oppressed. The majority of MPs and people in power are male. Our prime minister is female - that doesn't mean anything really.

Just look at that stupid daily mail feature on May and Sturgeon where their legs were appraised. That IS oppression.

And having some working knowledge of Westminster I assure you it is a man's world.

453 male MPs that should say.

Given the amount of people saying on threads 'they could stick a blue/red rosette on a poo around here and it would win' I don't think it can be argued that all MPs were simply the best candidate for the job.

HomityBabbityPie
That's objectively untrue
noblegiraffe
It won't happen soon but it WILL happen and it's not something we should just ignore until it does

What is

Ok i am not a Labour party member and it is their internal business. If it works for them good luck.

What can't be ignored is that the proportion of female MPs is about 30%, and that's with positive action already having been taken.

A newspaper picture they agreed to pose for coupled with an immature headline is oppression?

We will be differing on that til hell freezes I think.

Yes of course it is. Have you ever seen that happen to a male politician?

HomityBabbityPie

Definition of sexism: en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexism

Definition of racism: en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racism

This article explains my thoughts on that quite nicely, chocolate.

www.google.co.uk/amp/amp.irishexaminer.com/lifestyle/features/it-is-impossible-for-women-to-be-sexist-towards-men-440072.html

I can't believe that where we are in a position that men outnumber women so heavily in parliament and have done forever that anyone would say about any attempts to redress the balance 'oh isn't that unfair to men?' Or 'shouldn't we be careful in case we end up with more women than men?'

For one, that's highly unlikely, and for another - if you're that concerned about a possible tipping of the scales the other way because that would be unfair, then why not actually be more worried about the big fat pile of unfairness right in front of you!

When will there be enough women in Parliament?

When there are six hundred and something.

We need a couple hundred years of that to get to an even starting point.

(inspired by Ruth Bader Ginsburg of course)

Ideally of course there should be more women MPs but positive discrimination is not the way to achieve it. I don't understand how anyone would be happy appointing a potentially crap woman if a brilliant male candidate was available. Perhaps they should look at the make up of selecting committees, bring in more women so that a female candidate is given the same opportunity as a male?

appointing a potentially crap woman if a brilliant male candidate was available.

Indeed, look at all those brilliant male MPs that simply couldn't be replaced by a woman because they're too good to lose

Are you suggesting there are no crap women candidates. I'm certainly not suggesting that re male candidates?

I think there's a fair number of dreadful women labour MP's to match that (Jess Phillips and Dawn Butler for a start). I'd be really fed up to have them on the basis of women only shortlists

If a male candidate is brilliant, I'm sure they'll find a seat for him.

Given how few female MPs there are, it should be perfectly acceptable to swap a crap male candidate for a crap female one.