Sex and Power

That's the name of the new report from the Equality and Human Rights Commission. I have to say that they seem to have a very odd idea about the way we do things in this country.
A snail could crawl the entire length of the Great Wall of China in 212 years, just slightly longer than the 200 years it will take for women to be equally represented in Parliament.

Erm, women are equally represented in Parliament. Just as those of all races, genders, sexual preferences, height, weight and eye colour are equally represented in Parliament.

For we have what is known as a representative democracy. We might snarl, spit and fight about who it is that is going to represent a particular constituency but once that is over the individual then represents all of the voters in that constituency.

What they mean of course is that it will take that long (at current rates of change) for the percentage of women in Parliament to be around and about the same as the percentage of women in the wider population. But there's no need at all for the people doing the representing to be of the same group as those being represented.

Some 20% of the population is functionally illiterate and we don't run around stating that 20% of Parliament must be illiterates after all. The same with any of the other ways in which we can slice and dice the population.

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