Wednesday 13 October 2010

Gender agenda

Louise Bagshawe - MP for Corby - arguing the coalition's case for gender balance in cuts on radio 4 this morning shows how ridiculous this agenda has become. Siting the equality act introduced in the dying days of the last Labour government, her opponent asks what impact assessments were undertaken to see how the emergency budget would affect women. As if any such assessment were carried out by the Machiavellian Gordon Brown when he abolished the 10p tax band so as to wrong-foot the opposition.

Like the act requiring the government to halve the budget deficit over its lifetime - something Mr Balls now appears to have forgotten - the equality act is yet another of Labour's amusing tactical agenda's designed to impede government. Whatever happened to Nick Clegg's great reform bill?