Charles, I much enjoyed your biographies of Mrs Thatcher, and I’ve just taken out a subscription for the Spectator. Your piece was the first I opened, and one paragraph made me splutter my Earl Grey over my computer keyboard:

“Why are international sports bodies inveterately corrupt? Could part of the answer be that they have very few women on them? I am not saying that women are intrinsically better people than men, but they are less likely to be members of the mental club which instinctively lets your mates do whatever they want.”

In the immortal words of John McEnroe, ‘You cannot be serious!’ With rare exceptions – the estimable Mrs T being one, of course – women demonstrate a strong in-group preference in positions of power, appointing and promoting women ahead of more capable men. The issue of gender-related in-group preferencing is explored in depth in Steve Moxon’s ‘The Woman Racket’ (2008). Men show little if any in-group preferencing. The ‘glass ceiling’ was always a feminist myth.

One of the first things Nicola Sturgeon did as First Minister in Scotland was make her cabinet gender balanced. She’s now pressing for the boards of public bodies in Scotland to be the same. Meritocracy has gone out of the window.

I worked as a consultant for the Conservative party from 2006-8, but resigned my party membership in 2009 when Dave announced his intention to introduce all-women shortlists for prosepctive parliamentary candidates. One in three of his ministers are women, although only one in five Tory MPs are women. Experienced and talented men have been denied cabinet positions, some of them given to talentless feminists (the word ‘talentless’ is superfulous, to be fair) such as Nicky Morgan, Minister for Women and Equalities (why does such a post EXIST in a Conservative government in 2015?!!!) and Education Secretary. A sickening combination of roles, given how far men and boys have fallen behind women and girls in the education system. We know from a FOI response that her department has not the slightest interest in rectifying that situation.

In 2012 I presented evidence to House of Commons and House of Lords inquiries, pointing MPs and peers to longitudinal studies demonstrating a causal link between increasing female representation on corporate boards, and financial decline. A link to our briefing paper on the matter is here:

https://c4mb.wordpress.com/imp…

The government has bullied FTSE100 companies into doubling the proportion of women on their boards since 2011 (from 12.5% to 25%), and is now bullying FTSE350 companies into having a third of their directors of the female persuasion by 2020. It’s an assault on a foundation stone of capitalism, the freedom of companies to appoint directors as they see fit.

Mike Buchanan

Party leader

JUSTICE FOR MEN & BOYS

(and the women who love them)

http://j4mb.org.uk

CAMPAIGN FOR MERIT IN BUSINESS

http://c4mb.wordpress.com