Kate Bingham and Good Law Project sexism

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Lots of coverage in the news recently about Kate Bingham, Chair of the UK Vaccine Task Force, including a podcast with Nick Robinson:

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p093gs4k

For Feminism Chat readers who have been banned/don't want to be on Twitter, I thought there might be some interest in Jolyon's Maughm's role in this. Part of the coverage today has included digging out his article from last year and his plans to take the government to court over 'cronyism' in contracts:

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/nov/16/covid-19-contracts-cronyism-government-court

As you can see, he singles out Kate Bingham and her lack of suitability. While there have been plenty of examples of poor contacts (the ferry company without any boats is infamous), here's some details about her:

diversityuk.org/kate-bingham-to-chair-uk-vaccine-taskforce/

Of course she is connected to some people in government but she has huge experience in pharmaceuticals and bio-tech.

I know that 'Jolyon is sexist' is no news to Feminism Chat readers but it's rather nice to feel some schadenfreude about that article which has not aged well.

I found it telling that he seems to have spent more time on reading about her personal life rather than her professional expertise.

She seems hugely impressive. I sent her bio from The Crick Institute, where she's on the board, to my daughter, who is studying biology and chemistry at uni, and has thought about some sort of consulting work. I'd be delighted if she had a career as successful as Kate Bingham's.

Link to the Crick bio www.crick.ac.uk/about-us/leadership-structure/board/kate-bingham

When Kate Bingham's appointment was first announced I was pleased to see first and foremost that she had a background in biochemistry. I have been so fed up of the Classics, Eng Lit and PPE graduates that run our government (and comment upon it) being so woefully out of their depth when discussing viruses and PCR and antigens. So at the very least she knows about that side of the issue.

She also has many years of experience of the pharmaceutical industry and bringing products to market. It doesn't matter that she hasn't worked in vaccines before; their properties, manufacture and distribution will be common to other products. So I'd say she was very well placed to undertake the task in hand and there are probably few others around who are similarly well qualified. And in a pandemic you can't go through the usual recruitment processes, there's not time. Plus, according to The Times, she did the job unpaid.

I'm not one who usually praises the government, and lord knows they've made some monumental cock ups this past year, but recruiting Kate Bingham wasn't one of them. Sometimes even the spouses of Tory MPs and daughters of former Lord Chief Justices (as Bingham is) get where they are because they are very good at their job.

Good luck to your daughter with her career - Kate Bingham seems like a really good role model to me too.

unherd.com/thepost/kate-bingham-saved-vaccines-when-europe-couldnt/

Kate Bingham has been excellent as head of the vaccine task force. Jolyon Maughn is a sexist arse.

Well that's interesting and Apollo's succinct comment seems to fit the bill. I didn't know about Kate Bingham but I read an article recently on the Good Law website that he is taking a judicial review case, with the Runnymede Trust, against the appointment of Dido Harding (who is married to a Conservative minister) and other appointments, on grounds of indirect discrimination and breach of the public sector equality duty. He uses the crony argument and the one about not having any health sector experience. Two former Sainsbury's senior executives also got appointments, which might suggest that they wanted ability and experience of managing large dynamic organisations running complex logistics operations.

It struck me at the time that he seemed very exercised about a woman being appointed to a prominent role - as someone said above, even spouses of MPs might have merits. I am not judging individuals' merits, as I don't know them. It's a suspicion that some people are particularly riled when a woman gets the job. The case of the BBC's DG Hall being handed the job by Lord Patten, sprang to mind. I never heard any outcry about that. His article didn't name Sainsbury's or Mike Coupe, the Sainsbury's CEO who was ridiculed after he was caught on camera singing "We're in the money" when he thought they were taking over Asda. Why single out Dido Harding?

The case he has chosen for judicial review is alleging racial and disability discrimination, in particular, and doesn't mention sex. What are the chances of him taking up a case of indirect sex discrimination in public appointments? It's not as if it doesn't happen. Or other grounds for that matter?
goodlawproject.org/case/end-to-cronyism/