KEN CLARKE - MONEY BEFORE COUNTRY?

In today's Independent, Jeremy Hunt Shadow Secretary of State for Culture says

“David Cameron rightly expects all members of his Shadow Cabinet to put every ounce of energy they can into defeating this disastrous government, so no one should have any interests that deflect them from this.”

So will William Hague be giving up his directorships and make more speeches in the House of Commons than he does at dinners?

Will Oliver Letwin stop going to work in the City in the mornings for a merchant bank and make his work in the Shadow Cabinet what he puts “every ounce of energy into”?

Nothing released to the press to say that Ken Clarke will be dropping his directorships to focus his energies fully. I have always found puzzling the media view that Ken Clarke is a “nicer” Tory. As Deputy Chairman of British American Tobacco he has promoted a habit smoking that kills millions prematurely and puts vast unnecessary costs on health services, ultimately paid for by us as taxpayers.

Come on Jeremy, weren’t you being a little economical with the truth?

How can David Cameron ask to run the country when he can't even get his Shadow Cabinet to do what he asks?

The Struggle for Equality

At the Women's Rights and Gender Equality Committee here at the parliament the other day we were discussing the 2008 report on 'Equal Opportunities for men and women'. Many of my colleagues on the committee expressed their absolute frustration that for yet another year the pay gap between men and women has remained infuriatingly static. Our work trying to give equal opportunities and equal outcomes to every member of society is certainly an uphill struggle.

Back from committee this led me to think that it is 80 years since women won the right to the vote in the UK and with that the right to a political life. But women are still denied the top jobs. In Europe, as I have blogged recently, the senior jobs are consistently awarded to men and that trend looks set to continue into the next term. In the UK our Tory colleagues have only paid lip-service to the promotion of women: in the absence of both Gordon Brown and David Cameron at Prime Minister's Question Time in April Harriet Harman, as deputy leader stood in for Gordon Brown but on the Tory side David Cameron was replaced, not by his deputy leader Theresa May, but by William Hague with May demurely seated behind. As Harman rightly pointed out, this looked like women should be seen but not heard on the Tory side.

It is 40 years since the Equal Pay act meant that women and men should be paid an equal salary for equal work. However, the pay gap in the UK is still alarming. In full-time work women get paid 17% less than men and in part-time a shocking 38% less. The UK's pay gap is fairly much in line with the pay gap between the sexes that is felt right across the EU.

It is 20 years since the first black female MP, Diane Abbott entered the House of Commons. To date there have only been three black, female MPs sitting in the Commons. Dawn Butler, MP for Brent South, has experienced racist and sexist attitudes within the Commons itself. One such incident the Tory (it's always them isn't it?) MP David Heathcote-Amory questioned why Butler was on the members' section of the terrace asking if she was an MP. When she replied that she was he said "they're letting anybody in nowadays". He later denied that his comments were racially motivated but it is hard to see how they could be interpreted otherwise. In the European Parliament there are only four non-white female MEPs out of a total of 785.

So it is obviously with pleasure that I welcome Harriet Harman's Equalities Bill. This legislation is not the beginning of this is issue in the UK, and it is certainly not the end, but another step in an 80 year old journey that will hopefully lead us to a truly equal society. In the UK we serve as a 'best practice' example to our European colleagues on a number of issues my hope is that in the future we will lead the way on equality as well.

TODAY'S TORIES - CUDDLY AT HOME, NASTY ABROAD

Last plenary session we voted on a report on sexual health of women and girls in developing countries, which included a section on providing money for maternal health in developing nations, an established part of the European Parliament's overseas aid budget. An amendment to the report to cut funding for this important service duly appeared, encouraged no doubt by Development Committee member and religious zealot, Anna Zaborska.

Slovakian Zaborska, who views Aids as god's punishment for homosexuality, is a natural suspect for such anti-women sentiments. However, eleven Tories voted for the amendment and in favour of cutting references to the call by the UN's development goals for universal access to reproductive health care. Very nasty indeed. I wonder if David Cameron knows.

CAMERON AND THE ABORTION TIME LIMIT

We are all waking up to David Cameron’s anti-woman agenda. Although he hides it well with plausibly warm words, the modern Tory Party is no more in favour of equal opportunities than its previous incarnations. Take the abortion time limit. Cameron has decided to vote to lower the legal limit for abortions from 24 weeks to 20 weeks when the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill comes before the Commons in a few weeks.

According to the sycophantic “Daily Mail” the reason he has stuck his neck out on such a contentious issue is the Conservative MP Nadine Dorries. You will remember that the delightful Ms Dorries is the woman who took “Emily’s List”, the organisation which provides funds for Labour women to get selected for parliament, to the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner. The grounds – Emily’s List requires those it helps to state that they are in favour of a woman’s right to choose. The delectable Dorries claimed this was bribery to vote a certain way. Needless to say, the Standards Commissioner saw Dorries’s complaint for what it was and rejected it.

Her latest nonsense is to attack the Government's relaxed approach to sex education. Yes, you’ve guessed it – sex education encourages young people to have sex. Dorries has either not seen or willfully ignored evidence from the Netherlands and elsewhere that sex education reduces teenage pregnancies. Surely even she would think this is what we should be aiming for. Just in case you haven’t clocked it, Nadine Dorries is a right-wing Christian evangelist. "I try to live like a Christian. I try not to lie, to help others.” She told the Daily Mail. She is also on record as saying that she sees evil in late abortion. She would do better to be less focused on evil and more humanitarian in her approach.

THE TORIES AND WOMEN

The Tories are still making noises about getting more Tory women into Westminster and having more women on their front bench. Mr Cameron wants two of the final four candidates in each Westminster selection to be female. He has also said he will increase the number of women on his priority list from 50% to 60%.

Hazel Blears is on record as saying that the changes will fail to change the Tories and that the Conservative Party is still failing women. You only need to look at the Tories in the European Parliament to see the real proof of just how true that is. There is only one woman Conservative MEP and she is standing down at the European elections next year. In the 2004 Euro elections there were two regional lists which did not include any women at all.

The Tories will complete their selections for the next European elections very soon. It will be interesting to see whether David Cameron's fine words have any substance.