Change in focus in equality policy...

[RedToothBrush]

Lucy Fisher @LOS_Fisher
EXCL: Gvt has focused too heavily on “fashionable” race, sexuality & gender issues at expense of poverty & geographical disparities, Liz Truss will say tomo.

Overhaul of equalities policy will see pivot away from quotas, targets, unconscious bias training & diversity statements

In major policy reset speech, Truss will hit out at “identity politics, loud lobby groups & the idea of lived experience” in debate about a fairer society.

She will unveil new approach to equalities based on “freedom, choice, opportunity, & individual humanity & dignity”.

New equalities policy will seek to dovetail with PM’s “levelling up” agenda

Gvt will:
• look to move Equalities Hub from capital to the North
• launch equalities data project
• move Social Mobility Commission into Government Equalities Office

www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/12/16/pivot-fashionable-race-sexuality-gender-issues-focus-poverty/
Pivot from 'fashionable' race, sexuality and gender issues to focus on poverty in equalities overhaul
Liz Truss hit out at identity politics and unconscious bias training, saying her policy reset will instead look at geographic disparities

Trying to think about down sides to this. Focusing on poverty is a key thing for women and the BAME community anyway.

It strikes me as occupying a space that Labour should be, given their roots and history.

This is definitely culture war related, but its also a sensible move, because it is an approach that is needed in many respects.

This does sound like the material analysis we’ve been hoping for.

Not sure I trust the Tories much (or anyone really!) but a data project sounds like something that can be subject to public scrutiny, and that is surely better than the endless parade of anecdotes that has been passed off as evidence of inequality recently.

The usual suspects aren't going to like it.

Sounds good on the face of it.
As RTB says, it smacks of proper Labour.

I find it hard these days not to mix up my Blue Labour with my Red Tories.

There must be a home for the massive cohort of material-minded equality seekers who want to create an environment where work is available and pays off, without punishing those who haven't got /can't get it.

Centrum? Cenpuds?

Seems sensible. As you say, a focus on poverty tends to benefit women. Will reserve judgement though, as I imagine the usual suspect lobbyists will be hard to shake off.

Sounds really interesting. I can't read the whole article as not a subscriber.

Certainly poverty is a massive issue obviously and we have a massive recession around the corner.

Does putting it in the North represent more recognition or pushing it away?

Is this a precursor to binning equalities legislation when we leave EU?

I don't trust the Tories at all on this stuff tbh that's my personal view.

Is sex equality mentioned at all in the article?

If they move the equalities hub to the north they might get some more straight talking. I'm not sure what an equalities hub is, mind!

I think truss & the conservatives think more in terms of individual choice and freedom, rather than systemic or structural inequality. A greater focus on economic inequality and poverty rather than identities sounds positive & sensible but the Conservative recent track record on this isn't good I think. We'll see. Agree it sounds like moving into old labour policy areas, but only if they follow through.

@Ereshkigalangcleg

The usual suspects aren't going to like it.

Why? Cos it hurts their income stream and threatens their lobbying power.

Moving the hub north is interesting too. It depends where, but you might get less people who are part of this london metropolitan 'liberal identity' mindset causing so much groupthink.

@NiceGerbil

Sounds really interesting. I can't read the whole article as not a subscriber.

Certainly poverty is a massive issue obviously and we have a massive recession around the corner.

Does putting it in the North represent more recognition or pushing it away?

Is this a precursor to binning equalities legislation when we leave EU?

I don't trust the Tories at all on this stuff tbh that's my personal view.

Is sex equality mentioned at all in the article?

That would be a worry.

And yes that might be the catch unfortunately.

'moving the hub north might ease groupthink' LRT ' sorry for paraphrase.

It might. Or it might import it further.
Another paraphrase "never expect a man to understand something if his income depends on not understanding it"

That said, a lot may happen in the year or 18 months or may take to get it set up

I'm going to reserve judgement.

The idea that the conservative party suddenly are really interested in poverty. In the North. Is. ????

I will hope for the best but sorry I can't see it.

We've known the reason they want to leave the EU is to get rid of a load of employment law and etc. Equalities laws are not their thing really.

We're not leaving the ECHR though are we?

And when it comes to human rights stuff we wrote all the sodding stuff and drove it in Europe back in the 50s...

It's going to be interesting.

Personally I would take this 'refocus' as a 'not interested in any of it' but I'm a dyed in the wool lefty so we'll have to see.

Don't forget the govt have overseen UC, austerity, running down NHS, way before covid there was a massive increase in Street homelessness, food banks became a normal thing etc etc

Yeah I'm not holding out too much hope tbh sorry.

I was just going to post this link!

ON one level it should be good, but as it is the Tories I suspect that what will happen in practice will not help create a more equal society. ie it will be about how an individual can suceed, but ignore structural discrimination.

Also suspect this is part of a move by the Tories to keep the northern seats they only recently won (although many of the new Tory MPs are very "woke") by focusing (appearing to deal with) economic disparities.

And it may also be part of what is said to be an attempt to appear "softer" as they recognise the sort of arrogant individualism of Cummings hasn't done them much good.

" ... She will outline a pivot away from quotas, targets, unconscious bias training and diversity statements to improve equality, dismissing them as “tools of the Left” that “do nothing to fix systems”.
The state must not “waste time on misguided, wrong-headed and ultimately destructive ideas that take agency away from people,” she will say.
Her major policy reset, made in a speech entitled “The New Fight for Fairness”, will set out a fresh “Conservative values” approach to equalities based on “freedom, choice, opportunity, and individual humanity and dignity”.

It will centre on reforms that aim to promote equality by handing people greater agency over their lives and making systems more transparent, rather than focusing on equality of outcome. ...
In her robust intervention, Ms Truss will say the equality debate must be “led by facts… not by fashion”, which she is understood to believe includes the focus on protected characteristics.
She will argue that objective data should be prioritised over the subjective experiences of individuals in influencing policy.
She believes there has been an over-emphasis on campaign groups like Black Lives Matter and is concerned that the loudest groups have tended to attract the most attention, instead of evidence leading the debate, it is understood.
A Government source said: “The point is that fashionable causes may be good causes, but it leads to other people and real issues being ignored and neglected.”
Ms Truss will call time on "a small group of self-selecting activists" holding sway over the equalities debate. ...
While her speech will suggest that too heavy a focus has been placed on the legally-defined protected characteristics at the expense of other imbalances in society, she will commit to continuing the Government's work related to race and ethnic disparities, women’s economic empowerment, LGBT rights and the national strategy for disabled people. ... "

This speach has not yet been delivered so will be interesting to see what she actually says. (Do they leak speeches to get responses so they can fine tune what is eventually said?)

But this may explain the response to the GRA Consultation. That in fact they see it as a minority issue, and that nationally there are bigger equality issues to be tackled.

I just hope we dont go back the the Tatcher era of feminism of women can have it all, ie work all day, do the shopping on the way home, cook dinner and get up early to do the housework.

'It will centre on reforms that aim to promote equality by handing people greater agency over their lives and making systems more transparent, rather than focusing on equality of outcome. ..'

Well there were go classic right wing policy.

AKA pull yourself up by your bootstraps.

Not surprised.

No this won't help anyone.

Specifically mentions BLM as a shouty voice.

This is not a good thing.

It is entirely in line with right wing political philosophy though so not surprised.

I read a good book which helped me understand why right leaning people think the way they do, it's hard for an inbuilt lefty to understand.

This is aside from bojo jrm wealthy elite types obv who are more of the feudal perspective.

Yes, I’m with Gerbil here. This focus on “individual agency” sounds extremely ominous.

And removing a focus on “protected characteristics” sounds a lot like the beginning of the end of the Equality Act.

gerbil what is the book, please? Sounds like something I should read.

It's interesting - as far as change in focus, that's not impossible. Parties have changed focus before. The individualism and globalism of the post-Thatcher era has not always been the Conservative way of thinking or governing.

Given that the Conservatives have changed their voting block to a significant degree, it makes sense that their policy focus could change. Just as Labour became the party of the liberal middle classes and their policies changed to reflect that.

I always worry on the focus on freedom and choice as somehow being what betters individuals, families, and societies, however. I don't think that's been shown to be clearly true historically. People like choice, a certain amount of it anyway, and having a better choice rather than crappy choices in your life is a good thing. But more choices does not always make life better and freedom is not the easiest quality to define.

@NiceGerbil

'It will centre on reforms that aim to promote equality by handing people greater agency over their lives and making systems more transparent, rather than focusing on equality of outcome. ..'

Well there were go classic right wing policy.

AKA pull yourself up by your bootstraps.

Not surprised.

No this won't help anyone.

Equality of outcome hasn't been shown to work all that well either, though.

You end up with programs and policies designed to create the appearance of equal outcomes but which don't really address the causes of the disparities. Like the issues around Harvard admissions and race.

It also doesn't allow for much nuanced thinking around why groups might in all awareness make choices that result in different outcomes and see that as uniformly negative you can get into some rather paternalistic and limiting policy approaches there.

Surely there has to be something that meets in the middle.

I would be interested to see how people with disabilities are supported.

I’d be extremely worried if any government started trying to take away the Equality Act
This is also why proper non-regulatory-captured, actual trustworthy public governance really really matters
If regulators piss about being political and disregarding the basic job they exist be doing to support the public while being paid for by taxpayers, then it’s very easy for a hostile government to come in and say the system is broken .. so let’s dismantle it completely.

It would leave ordinary people permanently totally vulnerable without an equalities Act and a government body to promote its aims. You’d hope that new management could turn things around when individual organisations have lost their way, but when the basic premise of what they are meant to be doing is really important to keep in place as a protection for the public.

Agree with everyone saying where is the Labour Party on all this and I’ve been a Labour voter my whole life.

I think this is the extremely worrying for women, and I'm surprised that no one else does tbh! Sometimes this forum feels like it can't see women for the trans trees.

If they remove the focus on structural inequalities then they are removing that focus for WOMEN as much as anyone else. As a woman I've always come away from unconscious bias training thinking I'm bloody glad all the older men (who inevitably seem to prefer working with other men) I work with have to do it. Yes looking at poverty includes women and that's great, but if they're not looking at women as our own category I think it's a big problem.

Things that have worked re poverty and outcomes such as SureStart were hollowed our and closed down, disability programmes starved of cash especially the things that helped businesses to make adaptations needed for disabled employees and this done by a bunch of public school chaps in a cabinet where there are v few women and all while UC causes ever more problems.
Good data is useful and capture of debate by loudest voices is good but as others have said understanding the structural issues is also needed as well as the political will to do something about them. To find out the correlations between them you need qualitative and well as quantitive data

not good

Whilst we all wring our hands and wail. It might be worth taking a step back. Tories do an awful lot of opinion polls and focus groups. Labour should have been asking the North these questons but they haven't (or at least haven't listened). I'd be interested in just how much money is (has been) thrown at the equality agenda, and what that money has bought us.

I do think that having a re-think and trying practical, instead of meetings and quotas, solutions. I'm a lefty but have become more and more annoyed by the sloganizing of equality without it having any real practical meaning.

Lots of people have been turning away from equality issues because they feel they're just getting a constant battering of ideology which doesn't fit with their lives. It's hard for us all to understand how far the cultural divide has gone and we now need to try and bring things back to the centre and make policies work for people.

Further coverage and details in the Telegraph and Daily Mail today which Fleegle has a thread on, link here to join up the discussions www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/4108642-Liz-Truss-to-overhaul-Equalities-brief?watched=1&msgid=102690402#102690402

@highame

Whilst we all wring our hands and wail. It might be worth taking a step back. Tories do an awful lot of opinion polls and focus groups. Labour should have been asking the North these questons but they haven't (or at least haven't listened). I'd be interested in just how much money is (has been) thrown at the equality agenda, and what that money has bought us.

I do think that having a re-think and trying practical, instead of meetings and quotas, solutions. I'm a lefty but have become more and more annoyed by the sloganizing of equality without it having any real practical meaning.

Lots of people have been turning away from equality issues because they feel they're just getting a constant battering of ideology which doesn't fit with their lives. It's hard for us all to understand how far the cultural divide has gone and we now need to try and bring things back to the centre and make policies work for people.

All of this.

We need to watch the new office like hawks and we need fit for purpose women and children’s orgs who can lobby fo get government to use their data in real-world affected ways. We can’t trust any government, left and right are both shit for women.

I’m still a labour member and I have a lot of faith in my own local government and councillors, but neighbouring Northern areas (looking at you, Liverpool and Leeds) are stacked to the rafters with Labour misogynists - just look at what happened with Liverpool Resisters, and the absolute horror of the Leeds managed prostitution zone.

Absolutely take on board that disability rights and benefits need to be defended too.