Harriet – bang ‘er up

PrimlyStable

The Equality Act only protects people from discrimination based on one of eight "protected characteristics" - gender, race, religion, age, disability, marital or civil partnership status, sexual orientation and gender reassignment. "Hair colour" is sadly not among them, so ginger-bashing (including use of the "G-word") is not covered. The "association or perception" bit prevents people being discriminated against because they associate with someone else ("I'm not giving you a job because you're friends with white people") or because of a perceived-but-inaccurate characteristic ("I'm not giving you a job because you're gay" even if the person isn't actually gay).

And even if hair colour was covered, the Equality Act doesn't ban people from saying anything and doesn't make it "illegal" to make any kind of comment.

You too could have discovered this if you did some of that "journalism" stuff that former editors of the Today programme are supposed to be good at.

David Ossitt

Harriet Harman is above the law, she is an untouchable (why would anyone want to, touch her that is) I think that this is a proven fact.

She has on at least three occasions got off very lightly for driving offences that would have attracted much more serious punishment had she not been (at the time) a Government Minister.

Also when she was Solicitor General she allowed her sister (a lawyer) to read some kind of files that were confidential, at the time there was some speculation that this was a crime.

AC

Cliche - you couldn't make it up. We are all subject to laws which Ms Harman and her like imposed on us, ie for God's sake don't make a joke about any minority or you will be hauled before the thought police. She should surely be prosecuted under her own regulations, or admit that said equality rules are so much garbage. Fat chance.

Inspector Knacker of the Yard

Time for some swift collar feeling, Liddle my son.....particularly as "ginger" is cockney parlance for those of a gay disposition...i.e ginger beer....aka "queer" according to my personal copy of the 10,000 page Neasden Police Dept Diversity Log as supplied by the Hatperson Rainbow Alliance Initiative.

Mrs.Josephine Hyde-Hartley

They're all as bad as each other, it seems. I've just watched our P.M in the House of Commons apparently refer to one of H.M's more elderly opposition M.P's as a dinosaur - Such a bad example. What do they get paid for, one wonders..Somebody wonts to tell them all to behave properly. They're like a bunch of kids in the playground sometimes.

Robbo

Now just you look here, my man. Using the words 'Harriet' and 'bang 'er up' in the sane sentence just as I'm about to have my dindins must surely be a crime against something or other. Stop it please.

toby runcorn

I suppose one could argue that ginger hair is a disability.

smell the glove

Why dosn't the stupid fucking cow, retire, along with her brain dead husband? Save us all a few bob!

rod liddle

Primly - not quite. There have been plenty of complaints on behalf of ginger people under the former race relations act; it is, arguably - not my argument, you understand, - a racist comment, then. Like referring to someone's dark skin. Do you understand?

Does some of that journalism stuff extend to understanding the other part of the Equality Act which pertains to "association" or "perception"? What job do you have? Is reading accurately a prerequisite?

Ian Walker

Primly - Danny's hair colour is demonstrably a product of his genetic heritage (I'm assuming that he doesn't dye it). Ergo, it is a racial characteristic.

Mrs Mugabe

Primly Stable: does the Equality Act extend to black albinos, who invariably have ginger hair? If so, I hope they sue the pants off Ms Harperson (if they can get them over her large arse).

GaryO

I'd taste that salt!
Every last bit.

Austion Barry

What an exciting photograph.

A fruity Harriet with a post-coital smirk and a suspicious looking Ann Summers retail product protruding above a brothel-red couch.

Grrrr, and thrice grrrrr ....

HampsteadOwl

Reading this, as well as the many many other streams of Hattie bile that gush across the internet, I am led to this unpleasant, but inevitable, conclusion.

There are an awful lot of angry men out there who want to go to bed with Harriet Harman

Peter Crawford

Give it a rest Primly - I am male (so no sexism please), Welsh (no racism please), an atheist (no religious discrimination please)but I have claimed recently to be a Mexican Blackbird (Her Momma was Mex'can and her Daddy was a' Ace of Spades) in the hope of getting more money from the government. This didn't work and I have now restyled myself as Anibi ul-zamar Khan, an unemployed Muslim lesbian from Digbeth with a club foot and bad breath. I have high hopes with this one.

Primly, you have missed the point utterly.

Jimmoque

I'm not sure whether the Equality Act can deal with this; but red hair has been associated in recent research with possible Neanderthal gene admixture.

Major Plonquer

Why is this harlot disparraging anyone for being ginger haired? If my memrory still serves me well she was herself for many years the proud owner of a red box.....

Old Slaughter

Surely Parliamentary Standards will have a go either way?

And by 'having a go' I am not referring to the salt.

Sir Graphus

Peter Crawford, don't spend all your money, on just any honey that's grown.

Nonvexatious

Rod, I'm an employment lawyer. There are NO reported cases about discrimination on the grounds of having ginger hair. Not one. Hair colour is not a protected characteristic in equality legislation - never has been. If you are saying otherwise, prove it - give case citations

rod liddle

Nonvexatious; then resign, because you're not very good at your job. Red hair as being indicative of race. Geddit?

Craig Strachan

@Nonvexatious: There have been "kick a ginger" days at schools in the U.S. Informal, of course. Not like Martin Luther King day or anything.

Fitzmark2

As an ex-redhead, is there a retroactive chance of suing someone, if they call me an ex-redheaded rodent?
All those bloody years of abuse and I've not had a penny in compensation. There's no damn justice in this world.

She's a rotter.

Has anybody ever seen her and Paul Merton in the same room?? (Piccy)

Lord Denning (deceased)

Nonvexatious. It is incorrect to say that abuse from discrIminators about being red haired has not been compensated for in a Discrimination claim (sex, in this instance, if you believe the DM) seehttp://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-464301/18-000-waitress-taunted-red-hair.html

Anna

Actually, Hattie (generally infuriating as she is), didn't make a blanket condemnation of gingers. She specifically said that she loved the red squirrel - but there was ONE ginger rodent she didn't like - Danny Alexander. So he's an exception to her general luvviness towards gingers, and he's an exception because she thinks he's doing a lousy job in politics, not because he's got red hair. Honestly, I'm fed up of people going around determined to be offended about something. Hattie's a prig and a pain, but so are the flouncing red heads who are up in arms about an insult that wasn't actually directed at them.

Michael St George

Actually one of the funniest things about the whole saga was the numerous photos of Harridan sitting directly above/behind a pasteboard saying "Scotland deserves better".

Deserves better than a visit from The Harpy. How very true.

Disillusioned

I think it's fair to say that Lord Denning (Deceased) has highlighted the appropriate bit of the legislation. Bullying and harassment often fall under the same policy area and I think it could very easily be argued that Harperson is bullying Danny Alexander on the grounds of his hair colour. Of course, as with much of this legislation, offense is in the eye of the "bullied" or "harassed".

The issue at stake here is that the government has enacted a set of laws that make it almost impossible not to be sued even if you are a responsible employer. What's good for the goose is good for the gander. If I had said that to someone in my place of work I would have been sued. She should resign

andre_michel

"Oh, lordy, to taste that salt."
Jesus, Rod, I've just had my lunch!
I'd rather lick piss off a nettle.

St Jimmy

Isn't it illegal if Danny Alexander perceives it to be offensive? Or am I getting my anti-everything-that-could-be-construed-as-unPC acts in a twist?

You're spot on Rod - come on Danny - call Plod.

Baron

the woman infuriates by her mere presence, the smile alone engenders stomach upset, but one should defend her calling anyone she likes whatever she likes; it’s her fugging Act that should be maligned and erased from the statute book.

Jane Bodington

wasn't a lot of abuse directed at Prince Wiilliam for calling his brother Harry 'Ginger'during a TV interview, it was clearly a brotherly affectionate joke, and a lot of newspaper hacks demanding William appogise, not to his brother, but to red-heads in general, for that remark.
Where is the sancitimonious g-t now? If it isn't good enough for William to direct to his brother, and to his face, then surely it isn't appropriate for the Harrisome to use the same phraseology to attack the Alexander.

JJR Catstrangler

Off topic - but what do you all think of the Garland cartoon in today's Telegraph? If you haven't seen it - it appears to show the Prophet Mohammad falling to earth whilst riding on a toner-cartridge bomb!
How soon before Garland goes into hiding?

Forest Fan

Disillusioned...spot on.

It remind me of Major's "Back to Basics" crap while all the time he was boning Currie.

Total hypocrisy all round.

Adrian

Harperson shouldn't be banged up. Imagine you're a feckless, thieving crackhead with a bit of time on your hands since you checked into HMP Holloway. You might be looking forward to a nice rest and a bit of girly chat with your cell mate, per chance a winsome ginger tom. And then Harperson comes in, starts fussing about demanding your vote and mung beans for breakfast. I'd rather be waterboarded in Abu Graib.

Sam

With the Equalities Act, surely you could successfully claim that a bunch of ginger bread men were a "race" of people - provided they had been sufficiently "oppressed" by their baker of course - such is the corruption and weird kind of fanaticism that surrounds the terms "race" and "racism" in our culture.

David Ossitt

Forest Fan

“It remind [sic] me of Major's "Back to Basics" crap while all the time he was boning Currie.”

Get your facts right the excellent ‘Back to Basics’ was whilst he was Prime Minister the affair with Edwina Currie was prior to this.

Forest Fan

"Get your facts right the excellent ‘Back to Basics’ was whilst he was Prime Minister the affair with Edwina Currie was prior to this."

Well then it makes him even more of a hypocrite!

Osred

Baxter Basics? top Viz type.

Anyways. Major was still a bleedin hypocrite whether he was banging Currie when PM or not. And doesnt that show what a special breed politicians are - that he could get wood with that woman. Remarkable achievement, probably his greatest.

Lungfish

I once had physical contact with Edwina on a train station platform- very small and looks like Dracula in drag. At least she only managed to screw up the dairy industry as opposed to Harriet whose managed to force the biggest load of 'equality' bollocks and red tape shite on the whole nation.

David Ossitt

Rod your blog is attracting some juveniles.

Ron Todd

Would Harriet insult a woman for having red hair?

If not is she being sexist?

DavidUK84

Whilst I am in all circumstances in favour of sticking the boot into Harpy Harmen, the idea that she is a hypocrite is hardly news.

Righteous Indignation

@Anna, if you think she wasn't being offensive, consider this equivalent statement (for the lawyers, this is purely a fictional example and doesn't represent anyone's sane opinion)

"Many of us in the Conservative Party are conservationists and we all love the mountain gorilla. But there's one black ape we never want to see in the Chiltern hills, and that's Diane Abbot."

David Ossitt

Lungfish

It was eggs not dairy.

A dairy product is a by-product of the mammary glands of mammals such as cows, goats, sheep and others, and the products derived from them.

Peter Gordon

I thought that comments about bald people (men only of course). In fact disparaging men also seems to be not only acceptable, but required.

stephen maybery

Bang 'er up.Quite right, that's what the obstreperous hectoring old cow needs, a frigging good banging, preferably on a weekly basis, preferably by a genuine member of the lower classes with a head like a bunch of carrots.

Osred

IMO this blog needs more Juvenals & juveniles.

Lungfish

David- I stand corrected. Dairy products are derived from dugs whilst eggs are merely chickens ovulations.

Nonvexatious

Yes, I can see someone trying to run an argument that harassment on the grounds of hair colour is race harassment - but I think the courts and tribunals would give it short shrift for the same reason that, pre-specific Religion or Belief protection, discrimination against Muslims was fouond not to be covered by race discrimination legislation, because Muslims can be of any race or ethnic background. That's why the 'red hair as race' argument would fail - because people of many ethnic backgrounds can have red hair.

On the other hand, I think an employer's decision not to employ people with red hair could amount to indirect race discrimination, because it would place people from certain ethnic origings at a disadvantage. Unless the employer could justify it. And since hair colour is completely irrelevant to one's ability or suitability to do a job, I can't see how you could object to that being unlawful....

So back to my point - there are no reported cases on race and red hair - if you can find one, give us a citation. Otherwise, you resign for sloppy journalism.

Lord Denning - that was a sex discrimination/unfair dismissal claim. The sex discrimination claim was separate from the red hair arguments. Generalised harassment on any grounds, for example the football team you support, could, if serious enough, be a breach of contract sufficient to found a claim for unfair constructive dismissal.

James Murphy

OBSEQUIOUS FAN LETTER - Dear Rod, I am worried that your bitterly lovable Jonsonian wit married to a profound grasp of common sense is almost making me want to vote Labour again. (I said almost). What perhaps needs to be asked by those still resolutely on the left such as your good self, is how you all allowed the deeply charmless PC culture to take over your party? Yes, Gramsci, yes, 'the long march through the institutions.' etc, etc - but why did none of you stand up and say 'hold on, this is not what makes us tick - who the hell are you lot?!' Personally, I think the rot set in with the university set of my generation in the 60s and 70s (of which I was one). We were all, to a man, and woman, unquestioningly naive, comfortably hedonistic recipients of whatsoever minority cause was thrown at us. Without the slightest pause for real critical scrutiny, we swallowed everything that was put before us in the name of victim culture, every defamation of Western culture going. - Actually we're to blame. Sobering.

Alan

Harriet is pure "do as I say, don't do as I do". She is arrogant beyond belief. She built a career out of being not male and has done much to make society a worse place.

Ginger nutcase

prejudice against gingers has a long history - Roman actors conveyed to the audience that they were slaves by wearing red wigs (http://yelvertoncontramundum.blogspot.com/)

TGF UKIP

Oh good, any BNP member can now refer can to Del Boy's Obama, Chuka Uunna, as "that black rodent" with impunity.

Bill

What if Harman had called someone frizzy haired ?

Mr Sponge

So hair colour is not covered?

But isn't red hair a racial characteristic?

Just like afro hair, thick lips, flat noses.

I take it that from now on I can ridicule peoples appearance without being racist.

I wonder how calling Diane Abbott a "frizzy haired monkey" would stand up in court?