(no subject)

[andrewducker]

"No self-respecting small businessman with a brain in the right place would ever employ a lady of child-bearing age."

[Poll #324231]

Sigh

Comments

[nosrialleon.livejournal.com]

Not publicly, no.

Privately? Hell yes.

Re: stupid politicians

[wolfieboy.livejournal.com]

You forgot about a little ex-colony of Britain...

I could easily see some of the U.S. politicians saying this, easily.

Re: stupid politicians

[onceupon.livejournal.com]

I could see them saying it in private and then being completely demolished for it when the tape recording was made public or something like that.

But I don't think any politician wants to gamble that big.

[perceval.livejournal.com]

which ignorant f***wit uttered this garbage?

[perceval.livejournal.com]

found the link.

I KNEW it! The UK Burgers-for-Brains Independence Party!

[onceupon.livejournal.com]

That would be political suicide in the States.

Well, I hope.

nope

[whumpdotcom.livejournal.com]

Our right wing says things like that all the time.

Their base eats it up, other folks hold their nose, and pull the lever for them because they think the git will lower their taxes.

Re: nope

[onceupon.livejournal.com]

Ew.

Re: nope

[onceupon.livejournal.com]

Wait a minute, do you mean the right wing in the States? Because that's where I am, and I STILL can't see it being anything other than political suicide.

Unless, like, Arnold said it, and he has a layer of shock value protection, being who he is and all.

Re: nope

[derumi.livejournal.com]

Nah, there's a few former Dixiecrats, both Democrat (Byrd) and Republican (Lott), still holding seats in our government despite the stupid things they've said and done.

Re: nope

[onceupon.livejournal.com]

I totally agree. But despite the things they've said and done, they've never made -- as far as I can tell -- such blatant and, well, rude statements about women.

It's a weird dichotomy. In the States you can still make incredibly controversial racial comments but very few people are willing to take on the gender role issue.

Re: nope

[derumi.livejournal.com]

Pretty much all the nasty things Democrats said about women were in the 20's and earlier, if I recall correctly. Woman suffragists were anti-Democrat to the point where it very much concerned the few Democrats at the time who did support the right for women to vote. Once women were able to vote, it wasn't all that bright for the majority of the politicians to insult 50% of the voting population. Now it's more a trend for politicians to treat women like objects (Condit, Clinton) than for them to say anything truly insulting about them.

Re: nope

[onceupon.livejournal.com]

Exactly.

Now, if we were talking about the messages conveyed by ACTIONS rather than words, I'd say that our politicians are just as bad as the British guy in Andrew's post.

Re: nope

[derumi.livejournal.com]

Our left wing does that as well. Republicans don't have a monopoly on stupidity in the country, unfortunately. Jimmy Carter spoke that people should be allowed to keep the ethnic purity of their neighborhoods. Fritz Hollings likes to use the words "darkies" and "wetbacks". Jesse Jackson called NYC "Hymietown". Partisan politics seem to require that people forget that their own party can be guilty of the same trangressions as the party they're against. Good thing the Civil Rights movement was bi-partisan, otherwise the US would still be stuck in the 19th century.

[guybles.livejournal.com]

Did he not actually say it in Brussels? In which case, a politician (if you wish to describe MEPs as such) did not say that in my country...

</pedant>

It's still inexcusable, however.

[wendywoowho.livejournal.com]

But, that's one way to get the UK out of the EU: Disgust the EU too much! ;)

[missedith01.livejournal.com]

Explains an awful lot tho. Y'know, like how the pay differential hasn't improved in the last 20 years and stuff.

I think secretly a lot of businessmen think this way. It would have to be secret because otherwise they'd get an ET1.

Pretty depressing if you're a "lady of child-bearing age" tho.

Fortunately I'm a woman of child-bearing age, so I get to say: he can stuff his opinions up his arse. :-)

[derumi.livejournal.com]

"I think we talk about race too much. I think those problems are largely behind us... There are white niggers. I’ve seen a lot of white niggers in my time, if you want to use that word." - Senator Robert Byrd, D, West Virginia

We have all sorts of doozies running our country across the pond here.

[onceupon.livejournal.com]

But I think the difference is that the freaky comments OUR politicians make are all race related. No one wants to get caught on the wrong side of the gender role debate.

[derumi.livejournal.com]

You bring up a good point. It's easier to live in a district where the people you're slamming don't live, it's a bit hard to live in a district where there aren't women voters.

[onceupon.livejournal.com]

Well, yeah. *grin* We're everywhere. There's no escaping us!

Except maybe Alaska, but then you have to worry about being eaten by polar bears, so it's not really a fair trade-off.

[luxcanon.livejournal.com]

Isn't it just like the British
to pretend they have the only bigoted white male imperialist
policy-makers!

I'd happily trade administrations with you,
except that moving overseas
would be dramatically inconvenient.

[derumi.livejournal.com]

That, and you'll have to get up 5-8 hours earlier every day.

[shannon_a]

I don't live in Britain, but, yeah, I'd estimate about 75% of Republicans in office would say that, then wish the mike hadn't been on.

[whiterabbitt.livejournal.com]

Everybody's ignoring that his comment was a facetious manner of pointing out that the laws surrounding childbirth benefits would cripple any small business involved. But I suppose it's more fun to overreact.

[andrewducker]

Actually, they don't. Small businesses don't pay for maternity leave, the government does.

[a-pawson.livejournal.com]

Not entirely true. Employers are expected to pay Statutory Maternity Pay to the employee. SMP is usually 90% of salary for 6 weeks, followed by £103 pw for up to 26 weeks. This is paid directly by the employer. In addition, the employer is expected to continue to pay national insurance and pension contributions for any employee on maternity leave.

92% of this is reembursed eventually, the employer is entitled to deduct 92% of the amount from their next payment of PAYE and NI contributions to the Inland Revenue. If you are a small business, however, this can pose a cash flow problem.

geek

[missedith01.livejournal.com]

SMP is usually 90% of salary for 6 weeks, followed by £103 pw for up to 26 weeks

... or 90% of salary, whichever is the lower (for the remaining 20 weeks - so it's 26 weeks in total).

hem

[xquiq.livejournal.com]

Saw it and made lots of noise about it on irc at the time. Most of my geeky acquaintances on there just kind of shrugged and weren't very surprised. To be honest, I was surprised, as whilst I thought they were a bunch of fuckwits, I didn't realise that this was yet another area in which they wished to display it.

I understand that it can be very difficult for the smallest businesses to provide the same maternity rights as their larger counterparts, despite the measures in place and I'm not entirely certain what the solution to that is. I'm fairly certain that the solution is not pointless soundbites that do nothing to tackle the issue, but do a great deal to feed sexism and intolerance.

In any case, doesn't Europe with to give more employee parental rights to fathers, thus making this far less of a 'women's issue'?

[missedith01.livejournal.com]

I'm not entirely certain what the solution to that is

That they try harder?