Dominic Raab is no more keen on the Equality Act than he is on the Human Rights Act
Esher and Walton MP Dominic Raab has just been made justice minister alongside Michael Gove.
Raab is a longtime critic of the Human Rights Act – this appointment looks like David Cameron’s way of saying he is serious about scrapping it. In January 2014 Raab voted to allow human rights grounds to be used to prevent a foreign criminal being deported only in cases where there would be a breach of right to life or the right not to be tortured.
In 2013, he voted to remove the duty on the Commission for Equality and Human Rights to work to support the development of a society in which people’s ability to achieve their potential is not limited by prejudice or discrimination.
And in 2013 he also voted against making it illegal to discriminate on grounds of caste.
Raab also took an unusual stance on gender equality in 2011, when he expressed his fears that ‘from the cradle to the grave, men are getting a raw deal’. He attacked the ‘obnoxious bigotry’ of feminists and complained that men work longer hours than women (no mention of pay gap etc).
“While we have some of the toughest anti-discrimination laws in the world, we are blind to some of the most flagrant discrimination – against men.”
Seeming to have fallen at the first hurdle – assuming that feminism is anti-men – Raab also suggested that men start ‘burning their briefs’, presumably as a long- overdue retaliation against the feminists of the sixties (who did not, in fact, burn their bras.)
Raab’s diatribe continued:
“Britain’s not perfect, and we will never eradicate all human prejudice.”
This is especially true when we do not understand that prejudice. Another interesting choice from David Cameron.
Ruby Stockham is a staff writer at Left Foot Forward. Follow her on Twitter
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398 Responses to “He thinks feminists are ‘obnoxious bigots’: meet the new justice minister”
j.d.troughton
That’s what standing up for yourself in the face of popular prejudice and questions about your manhood is, as per this comment, genius.
Matthew Yeo
Or it displays a heartening ability to discern that the academic concept of the patriarchy is basically bollocks.
Zimba Zumba
Even though a Conservative, Dominic Raab is better advocate of the common bloke than anyone in the Labour or Lib. Dems. Frankly I am glad to see him office and hopefully he will put some common sense back into the Justice System.
Matthew Yeo
“complained that men work longer hours than women (no mention of pay gap etc).”
Holy hell, where do you think the pay gap comes from? if you can’t be bothered to read any kind of academic research that ferrets out where the pay gap is actually coming from, then why are you given a column? To just spout your own personal, unsupported opinions?
When you control for education, position and tenure, the pay gap is much diminished, but still there. When you control for education, position, tenure AND committed hours … the pay gap virtually vanishes.
Ergo, the majority of the pay gap is because you’re comparing the average wages of two pools of people, one of whom makes some very different decisions about work than the other.
Women work more part time, work less OT, take more holidays, more stress days, more sick days, take long term and short term disability more often and stay on it longer, take more sabbaticals, etc. They also choose more 9-5 work, work closer to home, choose safer (and less lucrative) positions and opt for more degrees in social sciences than STEM fields.
All of those choices will lower the average pay for that pool of women, but literally none of it is discrimination in any capacity.
mickey667
Mate i’m sorry but you just sound like a baby. To suggest we do not live in a male dominated society where all institutions of power are populated by men, all top jobs are populated by men and society and culture is not male focused is simple fantasy.
I’m a bloke but i can tell the difference between women standing up for themselves in a male dominated society and that meaning that men are oppressed.
Its embarrassing, and its a complete fantasy