Now be nice to Diane...

[BrilloPad]

Initially, I thought it was to indicate she's barking mad, not because she's female.

There you go!

I thought she was Becontree. 2 stops beyond Barking.

[d000hg]

Initially, I thought it was to indicate she's barking mad, not because she's female.

If he'd said that it would at least have been slightly believable.

[vetran]

His point, dummy, is that between 2001 and 2015 the percentage of ethnic minorities in the UK has increased from 8% to 13% i.e. almost doubled.

So although they are technically unrepresented in Parliament at present, that appears to be mainly because their percentage in the country is increasing too fast for the political system to keep up! Or it may be because a large part of the increase are currently still juveniles.

(This is based on vetran's summary comments in his post - I haven't had time yet to read the articles he cited.)

spot on. Of course MPs that hang about a bit in the commons like Jezzy (MP since 1983) , Tom Watson (MP since 2001)Harriet Harman (MP since 1982) and Dame Margaret Beckett (MP since 1974) should move on to give the ethnic youngsters a chance. Also as mentioned unless the candidate is exceptional the selection committee will go for the safe route we all know how well Keith (call me Jim the plumber) Vaz (call me if you need any passports for cash) worked out and he was considered exceptional as was 'only a black mum would understand' Abbotpotomus.

Combine that with last month assguru was saying a poll of a selected subset of Sky's 12 million customers adjusted by class was obviously unrepresentative of the general population yet he expects the commons to exactly match the fast changing ethnic makeup of the UK.

What next each MP is DNA tested so we can get it exactly right - sorry Mrs May there is too much Nordic in your ancestry so you aren't suitable for service? Can we cut Gerry Adams in half to make the figures match??


Plenty of great ethnic minority candidates out there I'm liking Siddiq Khan better than most. Would Vote for Trevor McDonald.

[SueEllen]

Plenty of great ethnic minority candidates out there I'm liking Siddiq Khan better than most. Would Vote for Trevor McDonald.

Neither of whom are stupid enough to serve under the current party leaders.