Our thanks to Jeff for this. An extract:
The Electoral Reform Society, which is backing the campaign, said the “legislation is ready and there is widespread support for this change to be made”.
“The sooner it is enacted, the sooner the UK’s shameful political gender gap can be bridged,” said Jess Garland, its director of policy and research. [J4MB: The Electoral Reform Society is clearly just another institution under the control of feminists.]
Dr Rosie Campbell, Professor of Politics at the University of Birkbeck who has extensively researched the make-up of parliamentary candidates, said it would help all concerned if the data was readily available.
“It would be a much more efficient way of getting this information into the public domain,” she told BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour.
“I certainly think they ought to do it and a little bit of a stick to persuade them would be a good idea.” [J4MB emphasis]
Caroline Spelman MP was the Conservative Party chair over 2007/8. In a BBC Radio 4 interview a few years ago, she admitted that men outnumbered women as prospective parliamentary candidates 10:1. I doubt the ratio is much different today. Women are woefully OVER-represented as MPs, given how relatively few women seek to become candidates. Women selected from all-women shortlists (e.g. Jess Phillips) have a particularly poor track record, and are invariably focused on extending women’s privileges over men.
