“@ Green man

You are being patronisong. Given that that the article is about Bristol it's entirely appropriate. This website is about Bristol

Here's the facts again.

In Bristol we have three female MPs and one male and the leader of the council is female. If the female appointed to stand for Bristol West wins the next election we could end up having no male MP in Bristol.

Whether or not other constituencies or parliament have an unequal gender balance does not have any effect on the fact that men are under represented in Bristol which, may I remind you is what this article is about.

Have you had a look at the percentage of women employed by the council? I think you will find that it's close to 60% female. Again a gender imbalance but I don't hear you complaining about that.

As an educated person I would expect you to be able to keep a debate on topic.”

“Green man - Men and Women are of equal value, but are different. Many occupations have a large gender disparity. I include, nurses, engineering, primary school teachers, and politicians. Most have had large recruiting campaigns for many years to try to increase the uptake of the less well represented sex. Most have had minimal impact on any of the roles quoted above. You need to understand that yes we are all equal, but we are not all the same, and continually trying to prove it will never work.

This is just social engineering, and is completely discriminatory. Who says the numbers have to match, our representation in parliament can only be diminished by this move.”

“@green_man,
"You are prejudiced because you dont acknowledge as relevant the fact that men outnumber women in Parliament by 4 to 1 - and despite the obvious imbalance you dont want to do anything that will effectively tackle this."
Again, you will have to explain to me how that makes me prejudiced. I am not pre-judging or discriminating against anyone, and in fact am very vocally pushing the opposite view - that everyone should be treated equally as individuals, based on their own merits regardless of sex/age/hair colour etc. Only in the backwards world of PC could that be called prejudice.

The only prejudice I see here is the sweeping statements about how men are incapable of making constructive decisions, how men are politically aggressive (but when women do it they are just victims), how men are unable to represent women in Parliament etc. In other words this entire policy is based on a sexist, prejudiced agenda.

If equal opportunities based on merit result in a higher proportion of men in Parliament then so be it. It doesn't worry me one iota. What worries me is that over two million voters have no party political representation in Westminster at all; that's a genuine democratic deficit.

As Anne Widdecombe has pointed out on more than one occasion, this patronising policy of all-women short lists undermines women in the HoC. They need to be able to look their male colleagues in the eye and know that they got there through merit, not because they were the third best candidate, but the better two were both men.

Although, as I said originally, a cynic might suggest that Labour's decision is probably just a PR stunt to make them look like they are pro-wimmin.”

“@ kingswoody - "Parliament is unbalanced and should be adjusted but not by compromising the principles you are trying to uphold."

How? What do you propose we do to get more fairness and a better balance, within a reasonable time? Its not good enough just to criticise - make some positive suggestions.

I know, lets, for a limited period of time, have all-women shortlists to counteract the all-male and male-dominated shortlists of the past and present.....

I thought some progress in this debate had been made when I saw that you acknowledged that Parliament is unbalanced - but then I saw your sweeping, sexist, generalisation that men are more interested in politics than women and that feminists are only after pushing men into the dirt. What bull - and that's coming from a feminist who happens to be a man.

Lets not forget the global picture for women too. 'Women do two thirds of the world's work. Yet they earn only one tenth of the world's income and own less than one percent of the world's property.'”

“Discrimination is discrimination. There is nothing positive about it, however you try to dress it up.”

“What happened to equal opportunities! Is it only applicable when applied to the benefit of women, denigrating men, or does it work both ways. Parliament is unbalanced and should be adjusted but not by compromising the principles you are trying to uphold.

Maybe there is a reason for the imbalance, in that men are more interested in politics. This is what I've found in real life, when not talking to feminists, who are only after pushing men into the dirt.”

“@ arealbristol - you are being parochial in the extreme by talking only about Bristol and its also a point that someone else has made, so I dont know if you are following this debate much. Believe it or not government and power use go beyond Bristol's borders! Only 22% of MPs in the House of Commons and 20% of members of the House of Lords are women. That means men outnumber women by about 4 to 1. Only a quarter or so of the MPs in the Cabinet are women. Its a bit senseless to deny that there is a problem with the under-representation of women in politics. We've only had one female Prime Minister and female leaders of politcal parties are thin on the ground. Women are also under-represented in other positions of power across our society eg in the police, the judiciary, the military, in boardrooms.”

“@ Green Man

In Bristol we have three female MPs and one male and the leader of the council is female. If the female appointed to stand for Bristol West wins the next election we could end up having no male MP in Bristol.

Please can you substantiate your claims in light of the above FACT.”

“Time after time over many years with mixed lists the best candidate for a seat has been a woman and they have not been selected because of bias and prejudice. Many woman are put off standing in the first place because of bias and predjudice. That's one key reason why there are four times as many men in Parliament as women. What do you suggest is done about this?”

“I would hate that if I was a woman.

You should get a job because you are the best candidate , not because its gifted to you via positive discrimination.”