Writs all round

Thank goodness that Nadine Dorries (left) has finally served libel writs on Damian McBride and Derek Draper for the scurrilous, nasty filth that they were bandying about for their Red Rag project.

The Grauniad reports authoritatively (along with a suitably unflattering photo) that Gordon Brown was not aware of the emails and was “furious” when he found out that they had been sent. One is inclined to be cynical about this kind of thing but I have to say I don’t believe such slanders are Brown’s style and for once am willing to take something other than a job ad at face value in the Grauniad .

Nadine Dorries is a canny individual though – she knows that the timing of her writs is likely to mean court hearings in around, say, six months or so when Gordon Brown needs them the least. I could drum through the Defamation Act 1996 but suffice it to speculate that even if they feel they were treated unfairly, McBride and Draper will come under some pressure to settle and avoid a courtroom soap opera in the press.

Whether they accede to that pressure remains to be seen but at least the writs have been served on the twits…

Meritocracy or madness?

There’s been a bit of a stir in Conservative ranks since the party launched its new selection guidelines for 2010, which included the stipulation that shortlists for selection must contain a 50:50 male/female balance. This is the process that we are following in Woking to select Humfrey’s successor.

A ConservativeHome poll suggests that 91% of party members are against this with just six percent in favour. Count me as among the six percent.

Discrimination of any kind, be it against the minority or the majority, goes against everything I stand for. But at the moment, 91% of the parliamentary party is male (the same number as those opposing the new rules) and there are just 17 female Tory MPs. This is despite DC’s “modernisation” and everything the party has been through since 1997 – we have just four more female MPs elected in the two elections since then.

I think that the Conservative Women’s Organisation and Women2Win are vital to the party’s future and a few of the naysayers would do well to visit the websites. There is no magic solution to the gender imbalance within the Conservative Parliamentary Party but there are compelling reasons why something needs to be done.

First of all, credibility. Unless the party increases the number of women elected, it will simply not be taken seriously, especially by the women voters so vital to success. There is also a trust implication here – we have promised to modernise the party and this is a significant benchmark – to fail here is akin to a broken promise.

Then there is simple natural justice. It is intolerable that such a large proportion of our representatives are taken from such a small pool – however distinguished that pool may be. I don’t care if we have old Etonians splashing around; but I want to see some more people like Nadine Dorries, Justine Greening and Anne Widdecombe who can truly claim to represent a broad spectrum of people.

Thirdly, it will be beneficial to the party and the country to have a more prominent female input into policy and the administration of policy. It will also demonstrate to some of the more resolute grandees that progress is here and they need to get used to it. It’s about time that we dragged this party into the 21st century and if that means balanced shortlists, fine.

I know that I’m probably the only member of the panel in Woking in favour of the 50:50 rule. But the party as a whole has demonstrably and catagorically failed in this area for 30 years – the past 10 years of which have been spent saying that something would be done. Now something is being done and those who don’t like the method can’t say they weren’t warned.