Parliament to set quotas for women and minority MPs

Political parties are to be forced to increase dramatically the number of women and ethnic minority MPs under controversial plans published today.

A cross-party review has concluded that mandatory legal quotas should be set for the number of female Parliamentary candidates. At the same time, the proposals, commissioned by Gordon Brown and backed by Speaker John Bercow, could lead to the first 'all-black' shortlists being introduced. The Speaker's Conference, the first for 30 years, said it believes that Parliament is too white, middle-class, heterosexual, male and able-bodied.

Story here-
Parliament to set quotas for women and minority MPs

I believe any forced quota is detrimental to a free society. A random drawing from the citizens would be a more than a fair option, in my opinion. What say you ATS?



[edit on 1/11/2010 by endisnighe]

I agree

totally

This perpetuates an artificial ism's -

People should be elected or rejected based upon the content of their character and the other usual considerations...

I would not support this in America

edit to add - IDK about a random drawing, only because you might draw a whole lotta mentally deficient folks, nutsacks or other problematic things.

[edit on 11-1-2010 by Janky Red]

reply to post by Janky Red


Well it looks like at least one agrees with us Janky.

From article-

But former Tory minister Ann Widdecombe said: 'The concept of merit is going out of the window. I don't care whether an MP is male or female, black or white, rich or poor, old or young. 'What matters is the merit they bring. We really cannot have targets for particular categories. It's frankly insulting because it suggests women and ethnic minorities cannot get there on their own merit.'

Someone else I like to quote-Martin Luther King Jr.-
Two quotes from his I have a Dream Speech

This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with a new meaning, "My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring."

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

Originally posted by endisnighe
reply to post by Janky Red

 

Well it looks like at least one agrees with us Janky.

From article-

But former Tory minister Ann Widdecombe said: 'The concept of merit is going out of the window. I don't care whether an MP is male or female, black or white, rich or poor, old or young. 'What matters is the merit they bring. We really cannot have targets for particular categories. It's frankly insulting because it suggests women and ethnic minorities cannot get there on their own merit.'

Someone else I like to quote-Martin Luther King Jr.-
Two quotes from his I have a Dream Speech

This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with a new meaning, "My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring."

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I thought of MLK when I typed that, it just came out that way, I almost dug up that quote.

I think there IS a point when messing with things goes past the POINT of common sense.

I was thinking about drawing out representatives, if you drew 5 folks and then let the people decide, well I could go for that 100%. If such were instituted here, with 100%
publicly funded money, we may have costly elections, but I am sure we would get better results, making up for the cost. NO more BS politicians paying back the big
money campaigns, they will pay back US because they serve US, not the other way around.

Anyhow this proposal is stupid and then stupid some more

this is so sexist and racist to white men people should be picked on there abilitys and not by there sex or race if it was the other way about there would be one holly stink about it

I think a bit of positive disrimination can be a good thing. The political parties should represent the the people they are representing, so there should be more Women and ethnic minorities in Parliament. These groups have been on the end of discrimination throughout history. So a bit of positive discrimination may help balance out the former inequalities. I'm for it.

The whole idea is hypocritical- sexism and racism involves lumping people into specific groups-erm, that is what quotas do.


It is utterly preposterous and we get crap such as "make the nation more representative"- well I am a white male, parliament is made up of mostly white males and I feel no connection or "inclusion" because of it.

You could stick 600 black females in there and the underlying sickness of our "democracy" remains

THis just plays into the disgusting left wing trend of group politics


I would vote for a "fringe" party who opposed that, wonder what my options are

[edit on 11-1-2010 by blueorder]

Well I for one think this is typical of todays society, lets not employ the right person for the job lets employ someone by ethnic origin and gender..

Pretty sad state of affairs really.