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October 13, 2005

She just smiled and mandated me a vegemite sandwich

A very interesting sexual discrimination case in the UK has splattered egg on the face of Patricia Hewitt, who has become Health Secretary since these events took place:

Mr [Malcolm] Hanney, a Bath and North East Somerset councillor, was interviewed for a position on the board of SWRDA [South West Regional Development Agency] last September and felt confident he had impressed the interview panel in Exeter.

When he was passed over in favour of a woman applicant who was the interview panel's third choice, he applied under the Freedom of Information Act to see the notes made by the interview board.

He said: "I had scored 28 out of 30 points and the panel said I was by far the strongest candidate.

"It said that they should appoint me, it was as simple as that. It was really rather emphatic."

But the final decision on the appointment was taken by Mrs Hewitt. Her department rejected the interview board recommendation and instead appointed Devon councillor, 60-year-old Christine Channon.

The story is appealing on a number of levels. It's a gratifying sort of revenge fable for anyone who's ever been passed over for a job on ridiculous grounds, anyone who has submitted résumé after résumé in full knowledge that they won't be read and that somebody probably already has the job lined up. (Or maybe I'm just particularly fanatical in my hatred of job-hunting.) Boris Johnson wrote in today's Telegraph: "Across Britain, in every household where there is a mildly paranoid, middle-aged, white, heterosexual male with no obvious disabilities, I can imagine that there will have been a certain amount of glee."

Meanwhile, in one of the more liberal pink corners of the map, our federal government is only now reconsidering its astonishing policy of "postal code-ism", under which job offers are only open to people who live in certain areas — never mind if you're willing to move lock, stock and barrel to Bytown, the Lakehead or St-Habitant-de-Peasoup to pursue your middle management dreams with the feds. (Those unfamiliar with or disbelieving of the policy can check out this vacant position at the Department of Transport, which stipulates the following under the heading "Who Can Apply": "Persons residing or employed in Eastern Ontario or Western Quebec, who have a home or business postal code beginning with: J0V to J0X, J8G, J8H, J8L to J8Z, J9A to J9L, K0A to K0K, K1 to K8 and K9A.")

That policy never ceases to amaze me. Only government could sustain something so obviously wrongheaded, and apparently it's too entrenched, too fundamental to the workings of Canadian democracy to weed out entirely until bloody 2007. And then there's this, of course, from the same posting:

The Public Service of Canada is committed to building a skilled, diverse workforce reflective of Canadian society. As a result, it promotes employment equity and encourages candidates to indicate voluntarily on their application if they are a woman [Damn it all, I aren't a woman! –ed.], an Aboriginal person, a person with a disability or a member of a visible minority group.

Indeed, there's no end in sight to the preferential treatment Canadian women and minorities receive in government departments where such groups are "underrepresented", but baby steps are welcome nonetheless. The UK doesn't come second to many in the installation and enforcement of bewildering PC directives, but Ottawa's human resources policies seem to leave London's in the dust. I still firmly believe that one day it will be affirmative action that offends PC sensibilities, but movement on that front is glacial.

We do share with our erstwhile imperial overlords a penchant for shrill, grating female politicians. Boris Johnson makes his feelings about Patricia Hewitt crystal clear:

My temperament is so generally peaceable that some mornings I wake up and think I have no enemies in the world. I rub my eyes, and stretch, and wonder what it is I am fighting for, and who it is I am fighting against.

And then I open the paper, and I behold the visage of Patricia Hewitt, and it all comes flooding back. I see the Health Secretary, and I see her spectacles glittering with the sheen of politically correct triumphalism. I hear her on the radio, with her bossy Aussie twang. I listen to her set out her latest jargon-laden agenda for interfering in the lives and habits of British families, and after a few paragraphs of Hewitt I am afraid I am fit to be tied.

So that's one mildly paranoid, middle-aged, white, heterosexual male with no obvious disabilities on the public record with his certain amount of glee. If only birds could carry common sense across the ocean instead of the HN51 virus.

(As an aside, while I don't quite understand Johnson's objection to paternity leave, he did once again make coffee come out my nose this morning:

It is this Hewitt who has come from Australia — once a land of burping, string-vested virility, a land where women would actually chase you from the kitchen if you offered to help, brandishing cups of Milo — and who now tells us British men that we are to have six months' paid paternity leave.

And remember — this man is an MP.)

Posted by Chris Selley at October 13, 2005 11:08 PM

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Posted by: Kate at October 16, 2005 05:52 PM