A sexist Tory? Gosh…
Observers of London politics may remember BoJo’s swift reaction to the merest allegations of racism against James McGrath. A sign of sensitivity to the dangers of prejudice, then? Perhaps we should check what his Chief of Staff, Tim Parker, thinks of women in government then:
He said that it was easier to appoint women to posts for which few qualifications were needed but said that as jobs became more important it was difficult to find suitable candidates.
Mr Parker said: “When you go down the pyramid of an organisation you find many more posts that are open to a broader market and it’s much easier there to be more equal, as it were.
“The narrower you get it’s tougher and tougher and sometimes you will get a situation where there are more people leaving or more people from one group or another.”
Perhaps not, then. For the unfamiliar with the Prince of Darkness’ infernal doublespeak, we’ll translate that:
He said it was easier to appoint women to low-skilled, low paid jobs. And that those well-paid jobs which exist naturally go to men.
Mr. Parker said: “When you go down the pay scales of organisations you find many posts that are open to the other half of the population and it’s easier to be equal there. Because that’s all I think they’re good for. As it were.
The higher-paid you get, it tougher and very often you’ll get a situation where there are women leaving because I feel they’re weak and more people from the rich white boys club. Because we’re rather good at keeping it that way.”
He doesn’t need to hide behind a claim that, “one group,” does better than the other. It’s easy to see what he’s referring to in context; men and women. But, because he’s bothered to cover his misogyny with the weakest of weasel words, the media deigns not to notice. And so he gets away with it.
These are the new, caring Conservatives, you see.
(Hat-tip: The F-Word)