Bring women into balance of power

Nov 30 2009 By Mike Olley

REPORTS in the media over the state of businesses in the West Midlands caught my eye the other day.

“Male, pale and stale” they were declared.

Caroline Spelman, Conservative MP for Meriden, said the lack of women in powerful positions was “terrible”. I agree.

What occurred to me was how close the make-up of women in West Midland business was to that of the majority Tory group on Birmingham City Council.

There are many strong and able Tory women on the council yet, frankly, in numbers it’s a pretty poor show. Only 22 per cent of the Tory group are women. The Lib Dems do significantly better with close to a third, while Labour is almost in balance with just under 50 per cent.

Rather disturbingly, the Tory women have little or no positions of great power. Only Deirdre Alden and Margaret Sutton chair any major committees.

Both are scrutiny roles, with no Tory women in the all-powerful Cabinet or as regulatory chairmen.

I did ask Ms Spelman to comment on the poor showing in the Tory group – but sadly she was not available!

Party leader David Cameron claims to be addressing this imbalance yet he is meeting massive resistance from the Tory constituency associations. They like their independence and they like their men, it would seem.

Which I must say is all rather strange. Whenever the Tories have won a general election, it’s the women “wot won it”. Margaret Thatcher took the Tories to electoral victory three times. On each occasion, the nation’s women voted her into power.

Labour has also won on several occasions with the help of the essential women’s vote.

The polls indicate that Tony Blair, took 38 per cent of their vote, with only 32 per cent going Tory.

Mr Cameron is not just trying to drag the Tory associations into the modern era, he knows that women are the key element in electoral victories.

If he wants to win next year, he needs the female vote. Now I will say that I don’t exactly believe in all this political correctness nonsense. I have been a victim of both racism and sexism. While a councillor, I was booted off the Fire Authority for being white – by my own Labour group! Some years later, I was kicked off a Health Authority for being male – by my own Labour Government!

I just took it in my stride, not that anyone was or is interested. I do, however, have a very simple answer. In Birmingham, we have 40 wards, each with three councillors.

That gives us 120 councillors. I say we should halve the number of wards and elect three men and three women in each. That would give us 60 women and 60 men. Instant balance. You could even do the same on the national stage.

Then, there would be no battles for Mr Cameron with his stuffy old Tory associations, just instant balance as God intended, just like Adam and Eve.

I know this all makes sense - Mrs Olley told me so.