Our thanks to Douglas for this, a piece by Karl McCartney (C, Lincoln). His seat is our #18 target in the 20 top Tory marginals (at the 2015 general election) which we plan to contest in the 2020 general election. An extract from his piece:
We need to make sure schools and colleges are boy-friendly through inspiring them, helping them see what they can achieve and also being positive about masculinity. It is OK for boys to like cars, building sites and generally getting dirty. Boys want to be young men, and young men want to be grown men – we should celebrate and nurture this, not try and make boys something they are not. More male teachers would certainly help.
Then he lets himself down with uncritical comments such as this:
There has been much focus, policy and leadership on matters such as the lack of women on Boards and the gender pay gap.
There is, of course, no ‘lack of women on Boards’, and I don’t have the strength or inclination to write anything more about the gender pay gap right now. On the basis of merit, women are already at least five times over-represented on FTSE100 boards, and the government is driving ever-higher over-representations. 96% of women appointed to FTSE100 boards in the past five years have been appointed as non-executive directors.
Then he partly redeems himself with this, criticising ‘the shrill equal pay brigade’.
Perhaps we should just be grateful, at this stage, that a second Conservative MP, following the lead of Philip Davies MP, has strapped on a pair.
