Agreeing with Ann: The "A" List

I'm in the odd position of agreeing with Ann Widdecombe - a woman who normally makes me want to shake my head in tetchy irritation. Now, I don't agree with her comments lauding David Cameron. Yes, Cameron's been successful. Yes, he's winning. But he's winning because he is less unpleasant that Gordon Brown. Let's face it, most people could probably manage that very minor feat. 

Where I do agree with Widdecombe is on the imposition of the A list:

The Conservative Party's A-list, which Mr Cameron has described as "positive action", is aimed at getting more female and ethnic minority candidates.

And Widdecombe's take on it is this:

"We have gone for category rather than ability. We're looking for more women.

"I'm all for more women. I'm all for more members of the ethnic communities. I'm all for more anythings as long as they get there on merit.

"I believe, as a woman, that every woman in Parliament should be able to look every man from the prime minister downwards in the eye and to think she got there on exactly the same basis that he got there."

Quite. Cameron's A-list; well, it reeks of that dangerous and pernicious policy of positive discrimination. It is also tremendously patronising. It implies that women and people from ethnic minorities need the help of the oh so middle class David Cameron in order to be successful in his party. As everyone should know by now, positive discrimination is still discrimination. 

The end result of positive discrimination isn't the promotion of the most inspiring and the best. You don't get a Margaret Thatcher or a Barack Obama because of positive discrimination. They succeed despite discrimination (positive or otherwise), not because of it. All positive discrimination creates is a sense of entitlement not from women or those from ethnic minorities but rather from those who are not capable of achieving political office under their own steam or owing to their own abilities. 

Cameron be warned: Widdecombe is right, and the end result of your A list isn't a party of Thatchers or Obamas. It is a party of those who believe they should have power because of the minority or group they purport to represent. The A-list doesn't bring about the elevation of the most capable. It brings about the elevation of the likes of Harriet Harman, whose sole claim to power is the idea that there should be a woman at the top of British Politics.