My mother (second generation feminist) says that she’s seen nigh on two generations of women insist that they can be shortlisted and get into the House of Commons on their own, and yet, in selection and election after selection and election, they don’t .

I’m still not sure where I stand on this. But it is over-simplistic to say that everyone should just be selected purely on merit.

The alternative we sit around waiting to see if we can make it on our own.

There needs to be a lot of work done to understand access and opportunities – and it also should be obvious – that diversity – is not limited to skin colour. social exclusion is certainly not limited to skin colour. Neither should skin colour take precedence as “no. 1 handicap” – understanding social exclusion should be far less about privileging ‘victim’ status for some concrete ‘factor’ and quantifying it per se – (and thereby encouraging ‘competition’ amongst those experiencing some form of social exclusion) it is far more nuanced and complex, and should be recognised as such. thinking otherwise is contributing to the problem.

Also it isn’t a binary – like ‘are you socially excluded’ yes or no – and that you will be that way forever.

Someone who happens to have brown skin but has been to LSE / Oxbridge etc., for example..doesn’t necessarily find it any harder to fit in with the Whitehall crowd.

Then the wider issues about who votes for whom – based on skin colour/other prejudices – are more complex. I don’t think you need to have a representative who looks more like you, and that’s a whole different discussion.

The way to increase selection of BME candidates is by ensuring that there is no discrimination in selection procedures. It is unlikely these days that selection panels would openly discriminate on racial grounds but there may well be indirect forms of discrimination, and a belief that BME candidates are not “electable”, which is increasingly not the case.

All black and minority ethnic shortlists are racist and discriminatory and represent one of the must anti-liberal policies I have seen in years.

Clegg should be ashamed.

http://lettersfromatory.wordpress.com

Then there is just the fact that the idea will be liking poking the snake of working class inate racism with a stick: as soon as there is a bit of controversy about where an all-Black or all-BME shortlist is opposed it will become a carnival for racists. And the only losers will be black wannabe-MPs.

All that said, I think there is a real crisis in black representation – especially black women (Diane Abbott and Dawn Butler ffs!). I’m not sure what to do about it, but I am certain that all-black or all-bme shortlists would be a major league disaster.