White males need not apply

The Tories went one stage further last month towards consigning themselves to the nutty fringes of political correctness by approving a plan to discriminate against white males when selecting candidates for safe seats. Oh, and yes - the discrimination will also be against heterosexuals!

A document, intended for the moment to be secret but brought out into the open through press exposure, laid bare the new policies. Called ‘Action Plan’, it was drawn up by two Tory journalists, Michael Gove and Dean Godson. It is known, however, that the plan has won the approval of party leader Iain Duncan Smith - although IDS is not too keen to be associated publicly with it right at the moment.

According to ‘Action Plan’, the Tories have a bad image problem. Few will argue with this, but the big question is that of what kind of problem. According to Messrs. Gove and Godson, it is that the Tories are perceived to be unsympathetic to certain minorities. The solution? More women, more non-Whites and more ‘gays’ as Tory MPs! Says the Gove-Godson document:-

‘We should aim to deliver approximately 50 per cent women candidates, 20 per cent ethnic minority candidates and at least one or two openly gay candidates. Some people may fit into more than one category. Gays are a special case in that a single high-profile candidacy will satisfy the media that a taboo has been broken, unlike in other cases where it will be a matter of numbers.’

One just has to question the mental health of people capable of producing a document like this. Are they actually telling us that ethnic minorities now constitute 20 per cent of the population? And as far as women are concerned, to suggest that they should provide half the country's Tory MPs (and presumably other MPs as well) is sheer insanity. Just how many women want to be members of parliament? In our experience, a vastly lesser number than is the case with men. There was a time when certain occupations, including politics, were closed to women. It was necessary and right that this be changed - except in a small number of cases, such as combat roles in the armed forces, police riot duty and fire-fighting. Now women can enter parliament if they really want to and are good enough. That should be sufficient, But to insist that they should be represented there in numbers equal to men irrespective of their motivation and ability is not only crazy but a patronising insult to the fair sex, most of whom have many better things to do with their lives.

And as for one or two token ‘gays’, just what will that do towards improving the quality and performance of parliament, which are low enough as things are? And if such a policy wins approval from The Guardian and The Observer, does anyone in his right mind imagine that this is going to improve Tory election chances?

We have said it before and we say it again: are people like Gove and Godson really in the Tory Party in order to enable it to win? Or are they there specifically to ensure that it does not win?

Let 'em all in, says top judge

The senior member of Britain's judiciary, Lord Woolf, declared last month that he would, if necessary, defy parliament in order to protect terrorists and asylum-seekers.

The noble Lord said that the courts must be ready to use the European Convention on Human Rights to block contentious laws. He went on to compare legislation limiting the influx of aliens (if only there were such a thing in reality!) with the policies of Nazi Germany. No, we're not making this up!

According to Lord Woolf, the judiciary must be prepared to make itself unpopular by defying public opinion when a principle like this one is at stake.

Now that is interesting. We are supposed, are we not, to be living in a democracy? Nazi Germany, on the other hand, was supposed not to be a democracy but a dictatorship. Yet, by making rulings that go both against public opinion and against the decisions of the elected representatives of the people in parliament the judiciary, if Lord Woolf has his way, will in fact be employing the methods of dictatorship - ‘Nazi’ methods.

Of course, we should not be too surprised that his Lordship, who is himself a member of an ethnic minority and a descendant of people who came to this country as a result of an open-door policy towards asylum seekers of another age, has such a view on these matters.