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Political Correctness

My politically correct credentials (such as they were) may have been dealt a further blow by three –on the face of it – politically incorrect speeches in one week. I proposed the toast “To the Lassies” at the Rotary Club Burns Supper in Chippenham on Friday, and again in the House of Commons on Monday, and then spoke at the Oxford Union against a motion praising ‘all-women shortlists’ for candidate selections. A toast to “a person or persons of undeclared gender and ignoring their sexual tendencies’ might have been more modern. It would also have been less fun. And I like to think that that great egalitarian and lover as well as respecter of women, Robert Burns would without doubt have disapproved of all-women shortlists! 

It is easy to parody people like me – and the bard himself – who start from the realisation that men and women, people of varying creeds, religions, races and habits are different. Of course they are. ‘Vive la difference’, as or French brothers and sisters would put it. But people being different should not lead to any presumption that they are at any kind of disadvantage because of those differences. White, black, male, female, gay or straight: it is my passionately held view that all were born equal; and all must be treated equally.  ‘A man’s a man for a’ that’ declaimed Burns famously. We are all humans, and we all have equal rights. Discrimination of any kind must not be allowed.

But discrimination cannot be corrected by positive discrimination – all women shortlists and the like – which in my view are almost as obnoxious. I do not know how the Black and Ethnic Minorities Housing Association (which exists) is any more justifiable than, for example “The white male middle class housing association” (which of course does not) would be. Positive discrimination of that sort actually implies unfair discrimination against the grouping which may well be the majority. (White, straight, middle class.) Why should they be put at a disadvantage merely because of their age, class, sexuality or race any more than a black gay or disabled person. A man’s a man for a’that.

What’s more women (like the excellent new Conservative candidate for Devizes, Claire Perry), or black people (Like Wilfred Emmanuel Jones, the candidate in Chippenham) would not appreciate the patronising approach which suggests that they have got where they have got because they are respectively a woman and a black person. They have succeeded because of their own abilities, which positive discrimination in their favour would tend condescendingly to diminish.

So let us enjoy and relish differences and diversity. Let us be happy to treat people differently. I am not ashamed that I open a door for a lady or stand up when she comes into a room. I have no shame about being as ribald and straightforward with my gay and black friends as I am with my white and straight ones. Walking on egg-shells to avoid upsetting someone who is different to oneself is of itself patronising.

So call me old-fashioned if you will. But I passionately respect the differences between people. I hate discrimination and snobbery. But I hate inverted snobbery and positive discrimination as well. Good manners, respect, politeness. These are the things which bind a society together. Or in the famous old motto of Rotary International “Service before self.”

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