Horsemen [and women] of the Equalities Apocalypse ?

Some of you may recall from my previous blogging that I have had the good fortune to have been part of a small group of people in Scotland who were able to bring government to a halt in March 2011.  We brought a stop to government plans which would have seriously diluted the legal protection available to people in Scotland to live, work and play free from discrimination.

Shortly after that I was advised, in roundabout ways and never directly to my dashingly rugged and handsome face [woopppss, wrong blog], that we [the small group] were considered by some to have done a grave disservice to the cause of equality in Scotland, to have set the work on equalities in Scotland back by decades, generally been all-round rotters and bad eggs, and probably done unspeakable things to sheep.  Hmmmmmmmmm.

siren voices beseech MSPs on the Parliamentary
Equal Opportunities Committee to throw out  the 
draft specific duties

Even the Equality & Human Rights Commission [EHRC] tried in a last minute, overnight, attempt to nobble the Parliamentary Equal Opportunities Committee and persuade them to ignore the siren voices and go with the then draft specific duties. The EHRC were, said Ros Micklem, Scotland Director, 'supportive of the duties as currently framed' and held that they were 'robust enough for regulation purposes'.  Ros went on to warn the Committee 'that any decision to delay would mean Scotland having no specific duties' and that 'we do not believe that this would be in the best interests of the Scottish people.'  

To recap.  Late last year, government consulted on a revised set of specific duties with which to ensure public bodies protected the right of people to live, work, and play free from discrimination.  In my view the revisions offer much stronger protections and challenge public bodies to do more than spin their wheels in the sand as they have been doing for decades on making it look as if they are delivering equality.

The consultation on the previous draft in 2010 found 123 responses submitted.  Government’s analysis then was that 79 [65%] of these came from public bodies [lets imagine them as turkeys] and 43 [35%] came from other organisations or were individuals [lets imagine these as non-turkeys].  The sexed-up analysis [and that is their poor arithmetic] went on to unblushingly conclude that

'There was support for all of the proposals in the consultation document.  A majority of respondents agreed with all questions asked.'

the orgasmic enthusiasm of the
 public sector turkeys

Given an alternative analysis was that the duties would considerably reduce the work required of public bodies to do and evidence much on equalities compared with what had gone before, those of us who could see beyond the chimera of statistical massaging could understand only too well the orgasmic enthusiasm of the public sector turkeys in voting for what would have been an almost permanent delay to the arrival of Christmas.  When the hysterical cacophony of gobbling by the turkeys were set aside, a more complex picture emerged and one which showed that just as many brickbats for the draft had been submitted as there were plaudits. 

Government did admit in the preface to its latest round of consultation on draft specific duties :

'Our changes focus on increasing transparency and accountability and putting more details into the Regulations themselves rather than in guidance.  Making the Regulations more explicit will help public authorities to understand what they need to do and it will help equality groups and communities to see what authorities are doing.'

Government has, last week, published the consultation responses received to the new draft specific duties.  An analysis is being worked on.  It is hoped that it will be a more honest, accurate and transparent analysis.

  

While waiting on this I thought I’d randomly sample and taste what had been submitted this time around, and see if anyone had touched on the hiatus from last year and whether they had taken a view that this latest draft was the better for it.  This was not made easy by the government’s website being set up in such a way that you could not click onto any name in the list of respondents and find their submission.  For those who are not paranoid, this was apparently just a technical glitch.

Out of the 136 submitted, I have skim read around 20.  My overall impressions [note I don’t claim it was an analysis and that these are ‘findings’]?  It looks as if most people and organisations agree that the latest draft specific duties are good for Scotland.  But then a few of them agreed that was the case last time, which is probably why I am unable to find reference in these submissions to the last time - it has been conveniently airbrushed out of the official history as is written in the model of the world of these respondents.

As ever, there are the usual eejits who manage to dig a deep hole for themselves and instead of throwing away the shovel keep on stabbing themselves in the foot with it when they worry in their response about having to ask job applicants if they are pregnant.  Yes, really.  And for a small fee I will let you know who and save you reading through all 136 to get to that gem.

'There are the usual eejits who manage to dig a deep hole for themselves and instead of throwing away the shovel keep on stabbing themselves in the foot with it when they worry in their response about having to ask job applicants if they are pregnant.'

 There was also a response from the EHRC in Scotland.  Still predicting doom for the people of Scotland ?  Their latest offering concludes, 'The Commission welcomes this consultation and looks forward to the publication of the duties in their final form.  The current absence of the Specific Duties has created an uncertainty amongst public authorities, and those served by them, about what the balance of rights and responsibilities are.'  Not much bridge-building there then.  Clearly we are still scoundrels, rotters and bad eggs.

  

4 horsemen of the apocalypse .... left the orphaned
 equality communities helpless in our wake .. 

What is missing from all of the sample I looked at is any sense that maybe, just maybe, Liz Rowlett, Jatin Haria, Eleanor McKnight and others got it right about a year ago.  That maybe, just maybe, those who reckoned the we were nothing more than the 4 horsemen [sic] of the apocalypse who scorched the earth of equalities work and left the orphaned equality communities helpless in our wake, need to acknowledge that what has been achieved is a set of much stronger protections for people from all of Scotland's equality communities, as well as a landmark moment for active and participative democracy.

FOOTNOTE

For the sake of historical accuracy and the official record, when Jatin and I took on the role of siren voices and beseeched the Parliamentary Equal Opportunities Committee to throw out the duties, we both kept our clothes on, unlike our body doubles featured in 'Ulysses and the Sirens' above and as painted by Herbert James Draper [1863-1920].