Friday, February 19, 2010

May Asks Harman to Apologise for Her 3 Lies

On Monday Harriet Harman created some sort of a record, when she lied three times during an interview on Sky News. I wrote about it HERE. Theresa May is not amused and has called her to account.

The Rt Hon Harriet Harman QC MP
Minister for Women & Equality
Government Equalities Office
9th Floor
Eland House
Bressenden Place
London SW1E 5DU

17th February 2010


Dear Harriet,

I am writing in regard to comments that you made whilst appearing on Sky News and BBC News on Monday 15th February.

During your appearances you inaccurately stated that, “The Conservatives in the House of Commons voted against the Equality Bill.” As you will be aware, this is not the case. We tabled a reasoned amendment at Second Reading to place on record some of the concerns we had about certain aspects of the Bill, and we abstained at Third Reading because of those concerns. We have never voted against the Equality Bill and have in fact been very clear that we welcome the vast majority of it.

You also made the inaccurate claim that, “inequality…has been improving”. As you will be aware, this is not the case. Just a few weeks ago the National Equality Panel – which you commissioned – found that not only had income inequality grown under Labour but it is now at its highest level since just after the Second World War.

Furthermore, you also made the inaccurate claim that, “There’s fewer people unemployed…than there were when we first came in”. As you will be aware, this is not the case. Unemployment is now 2.46 million, whereas in May 1997 it was 2.05 million.

I would be grateful if you could publicly correct each of these statements at the earliest opportunity.

Yours sincerely,

The Rt Hon Theresa May MP

14 comments:

Unknown said...

"publicly correct each of these statements at the earliest opportunity."

Anyone holding their breath?

Sean said...

May I expect to see HH on the Six O'Clock News setting the record straight?

waymore said...

Letters to Harman, the PM or indeed that "scum" quoting nonentity whip, really have no effect. The government do not care; they lie, distort, evade and fabricate as they attempt to spin their way out of impending electoral meltdown and we are not even in the official campaign. Coming soon...smears, libels and a class war to warm the cold, cold hearts of the far left.The politics of denigration is here.

Anonymous said...

Honestly, why are any Tories worthy of the name trying to claim the moral high ground on this?

With your permission, Iain, I'll repost a comment I left on @BevaniteEllie 's blog recently....

What blinkered, illiberal, doctrinaire meddlers like Harriet Harman will never hoist in, is that legislating for equality never achieves its objective.

The end result is always that one injustice is replaced with another.

Just one example among thousands....

Where, other than in some kind of Swiftian dystopia, would it be considered right that universities offer places to candidates with inferior grades simply because they fall into some kind of arbitrary demographic?

Please, when you talk about equality, have the decency, and honesty, to tell it how it really is.

Let’s call it polarisation from now on.

Kat said...

Much of the Equality Bill requires secondary legalisation to make it a reality. I will be interested to see if a Conservative government sets about securing the necessary secondary legalisation – there are concerns they will not.
I would be more impressed if Theresa May stated her party are committed to the Equality Bill and will ensure they prioritise the necessary legalisation needed to make it a reality if they come to power.

Anonymous said...

If Sky has got any balls , they should ask her back on to explain herself and by a newscaster who is a bit more than a pretty teleprompt reader .

And keep on plugging it 'till she does. !

I wonder how many tubs of lard we are going to see after the 2010 Q1 figures come in ?

David Boothroyd said...

Theresa May needs to learn something about Parliament. If you put down and support a reasoned amendment at second reading you are voting against the Bill because the effect of passing such an amendment is to throw out the Bill. The Conservative amendment began "That this House declines to give a Second Reading to the Equality Bill". That's voting against the Bill, by anyone's definition.

Nayan said...

I really hope an incoming Tory government repeals most of the spiteful manhating legislation introduced by Hatty Harperson. Britain should return to being a meritocracy where the best candidate for the position is chosen. Not something based on arbitrary measures like skin colour, gender or religion.

We had a position open at my job which required a very specific type of developer and we had 5 applicants 4 of them single white men and one black female. The men were qualified to perfection, but the woman was lacking in key areas critical to the job. We hired one of the men, and we were then taken to an employment tribunal for some sort of adjudication. The tribunal found in her favour due to equality laws and we had to hire her.

In the end we had to hire an extra person for no reason. Now we don't advertise our jobs publicly and headhunt at great expense. The woman got fired in the end because she was useless so it turned out to be a complete waste of everyone's time. The second tribunal ruled in our favour, she showed little no aptitude for Maya, 3DSMax or any type of advanced 3D modelling which is bad for a lead developer...

MattyT said...

David Boothroyd said:

"The Conservative amendment began "That this House declines to give a Second Reading to the Equality Bill". That's voting against the Bill, by anyone's definition."

Not by my definition of voting, or indeeed that of the OED, or anyone except a desperate NL apologist.

David Boothroyd said...

MattyT, are you a real idiot or just pretending? If you vote to decline a second reading to a Bill it is thrown out. It is finished. It is wrecked. It is defeated. It is ended. It passes from this world to the next. It expires and goes to meet its maker. It runs down the curtain and joins the choir invisible. It becomes an ex-Bill.

If you vote to decline a second reading to a Bill you vote against the Bill. Or otherwise a lot of people have been voting the wrong way since the 12th century.

Anonymous said...

David Boothroyd,

Thanks for making that clear.

The second time I have laughed out loud today.

Anonymous said...

May should also write to the thick numpties who pass for interviewers on BBC and SKY. So thick and unprepared are they that they let these lies pass without ncomment.

Do they actually enjoy being taken for fools and lied to and walked all over like some grubby doormat?

Dave H said...

Well done Theresa May. That's told her.

Though unfortunately she has made the mistake of confusing Harriet Harman with somebody that could give a **** about lying.

Why not try appealing to Peter Mandelson's sense of shame or Gordon's grip on normality next?

50 Calibre said...

Politicians routinely lie like stinking fish. It's what they do.

They even think that nobody knows that!

So many MPs, so few handy lamp posts...