Harriet Harman

Harriet Harman, Transport »

9 Jan 2010 | One Comment

That’s not a title I would usually use for one of my blog posts, but this is one rare case where it is appropriate.
Harriet Harman has been fined £350 and had three points added to her driving licence after pleading guilty to driving without due care and attention – after a second charge of driving while using a mobile phone was withdrawn.
However, let’s have a look at the details of the “crash”:

Prosecutor Michael Jennings said Ms Harman had been involved in a minor collision… on 3 July, the day she …

Gender, Harriet Harman, Labour Party »

4 Aug 2009 | No Comment

Yes, Harriet Harman definitely is sexist. Not only does she think that “men cannot be left to run things on their own”, her response to criticism is just as revealing:

I didn’t actually say you can’t trust men, I basically said you get better decision-making in a team if it’s a balanced team with women and men working alongside each other.
One of the reasons I ran for deputy is because I thought there should be a woman in the leadership team and I don’t think women would want to step back …

Gender, Harriet Harman, Politics »

3 Aug 2009 | No Comment

Harriet Harman has done it again. She can’t even stay out of trouble for a couple of weeks when she’s supposed to be running the country! Yet again she has put her foot in it over gender, equality, and the Labour party’s internal politics.

I don’t agree with all-male leaderships… Men cannot be left to run things on their own. I think it’s a thoroughly bad thing to have a men-only leadership… I think a balanced team of men and women makes better decisions. That’s one of the reasons why I …

Celebrity, Harriet Harman, Politics »

17 Jul 2009 | No Comment

Even though it is nothing new, there are few things that annoy me more than politicians talking about celebrities and their issues. The latest example of this is Harriet Harman commentthat

it’s absolutely shocking that Arlene Phillips is not going to be a judge on Strictly Come Dancing.

Which she then tries to justify by following it up with:

And as equality minister, I am suspicious that there is age discrimination there.
So I’d like to take the opportunity of asking the BBC – it is not too late, we want Arlene Phillips in …

David Miliband, Harriet Harman, Jack Straw, Labour Party »

8 Jul 2008 | No Comment

How much does the Labour Party hate us? One hell of a lot if they can even consider making Harriet Harman leader!
She’s the worst possible alternative to Gordon Brown. Despite being English and middle-class, in alternative to Brown’s dour Scottishness, she is more likely than anyone to alienate the inhabitants of Middle England that Labour needs to attract/hold on to in order to stay in government.
The only real, logical, alternative to Brown as Prime Minister is Jack Straw. David Miliband is simply not stupid enough to want it right now. …

Discrimination, Harriet Harman »

26 Jun 2008 | No Comment

Discrimination is wrong, in every way. This is something we all agree on, right? So how is tacking the word “positive” on to it making it any better?
What Harman is proposing is utterly disgusting. The very idea that firms should discriminate in favour of female and ethnic minority job candidates is no better than than discrimination in favour of middle-aged white men.
Discrimination in order to increase diversity and to “help organisations such as the police better reflect the communities they serve” isn’t a Good Thing in the slightest. In fact, …

Family, Harriet Harman, Protesting »

8 Jun 2008 | No Comment

Fathers 4 Justice campaigners, dressed up as superheroes – named Captain Conception and Cash Gordon – have climbed on to the roof of Harriet Harman’s house, and unfurled a banner saying “A father is for life, not just conception”.
Harman was presumably selected because last month she stated that marriage was irrelevant to government policy, undermining the traditional [or even untraditional] family life.
However, as much as I support their protest I’m not sure that climbing on to the private residence of a Cabinet member is really quite right. They should have …

Harriet Harman, Law and Order, Police »

1 Apr 2008 | No Comment

This picture tells a story.
Either:
(a) We all need to wear a stab jacket when walking the street, even if flanked by three policemen,(b) Only Harriet Harman needs to wear a stab jacket because she’s more important than us, or(c) We’re all seeing things and Harman isn’t really wearing a stab jacket.
Her excuse that it is like wearing a hard hat when on a construction site is utterly absurd. You wear a hard hat on a construction site because things might fall from above – and, well, it’s the law. Wearing …

Equality, Harriet Harman, Race »

13 Feb 2008 | No Comment

Yet another all-*insert minority of choice* shortlist.
ALL-BLACK shortlists designed to increase the number of ethnic minority MPs at Westminster are being considered by ministers.A report commissioned by Harriet Harman, the equalities minister, recommends a change to the race discrimination laws. It proposes introducing the shortlists for four consecutive general elections to redress the underrepresentation of ethnic minorities at Westminster…At present only 15 of the 646 MPs are from ethnic minorities, and only two of those 15 are women. (The Times)
Hasn’t it been realised that this sort of thing is discrimination …

Alan Johnson, Harriet Harman, Labour Party »

27 Jan 2008 | No Comment

Who stood in the election to become the Deputy Leader of the Labour Party last year?

Harriet Harman [the eventual winner]
Peter Hain
Alan Johnson
Hilary Benn
Hazel Blears
Jon Cruddas

Two of these have already been in big problems over donations to their campaigns – Harriet Harman accepting £5,000 from a proxy donor, and Peter Hain failing to declare £103,000 to the Electoral Commission, culminating in him having to quit his job over it.
And now yet another of the candidates is being accused of having donation problems over his campaign – Alan Johnson.
A …