Equal Opportunities

[garinda]

Where on earth will this end?

Sorry Miss, you have just the qualifications and experience we're looking for, but I can't offer you the job, as we've already filled our 'pretty quota' this year.

[DaveinGermany]

The theory of "Equal opportunities" in itself is a load of codswallop, we will never ever be equal, whether it's about men or woman, race & colour, physical ability or intelligence sexual preferences. We are all different regardless how much the bleaters & whiners try to ram it down our throats, in fact the more it's forced through the more it's resented.

Automatically by requiring certain qualities or skills you're already discriminating in theory, why can't the whiners & those insisting just let things lie ? Just accept some folk are better than others at certain things & that is just the way life is & will always be unless we start "engineering people", so we're all equal. Sanctimonious crap !

[garinda]

I also think it's very stupid for our top universities to have certain quotas to fill, making sure they have a given intake of students from the state system.

Undergraduates should be given their place because they are the best on offer.

If there are failings in state education, address those issues, and therefore ensure those pupils have an equal chance of winning a place at a good university.

[jaysay]

What ever happen to giving the job to the best qualified person irrespective of sex, creed or colour, keep to those guide lines and you could never be far wrong

[gynn]

Originally Posted by jaysay

What ever happen to giving the job to the best qualified person irrespective of sex, creed or colour, keep to those guide lines and you could never be far wrong

Which brings us back to the original post about the appointment of an anaesthetist.

If I'm going to be put under, I want the person doing it to know what they are doing. If they are there to satisfy some quota or other, how do I know they can tell the difference between Nitrous Oxide and Carbon Dioxide?

A bit like that film Green For Danger with Megs Jenkins as the baddie.....

[Eric]

Originally Posted by gynn

Which brings us back to the original post about the appointment of an anaesthetist.

If I'm going to be put under, I want the person doing it to know what they are doing. If they are there to satisfy some quota or other, how do I know they can tell the difference between Nitrous Oxide and Carbon Dioxide?

A bit like that film Green For Danger with Megs Jenkins as the baddie.....

This argument of yours is drifting away from "equal opportunities". PCism really bugs my ass ... but, you seem to be going way off base when you assume that someone hired through an "equal opportunities" ad will be incompetent. I can't see any logical path (live long and prosper, by the way) by which you can reach this conclusion What you are suggesting is that affirmative action programs will lead to the hiring of incompetents, that your plane will be piloted by a blind lesbian merely because there were so few blind lesbians piloting planes, and that balance had to be acheived. Is it your argument that incompetents are being hired because of "equal opportunities"? That soon, planes will be falling out of the sky because the pilot is a blind lesbian, and the co-pilot is an octogenarian with alzheimers (we can't have ageism)? When I think of affirmative action, I don't think of the pc garbage mouthed by granola "visionaries"; I think of it as being used to address imbalances that would not be resolved without some kind of government action. A good example of systemic imbalance is that women are still being paid less than men for doing the same bloody job.

[jaysay]

Originally Posted by Eric

This argument of yours is drifting away from "equal opportunities". PCism really bugs my ass ... but, you seem to be going way off base when you assume that someone hired through an "equal opportunities" ad will be incompetent. I can't see any logical path (live long and prosper, by the way) by which you can reach this conclusion What you are suggesting is that affirmative action programs will lead to the hiring of incompetents, that your plane will be piloted by a blind lesbian merely because there were so few blind lesbians piloting planes, and that balance had to be acheived. Is it your argument that incompetents are being hired because of "equal opportunities"? That soon, planes will be falling out of the sky because the pilot is a blind lesbian, and the co-pilot is an octogenarian with alzheimers (we can't have ageism)? When I think of affirmative action, I don't think of the pc garbage mouthed by granola "visionaries"; I think of it as being used to address imbalances that would not be resolved without some kind of government action. A good example of systemic imbalance is that women are still being paid less than men for doing the same bloody job.

That is not always the case Eric, which a resent report verified

[shillelagh]

maybe when you've been discriminated against then you can turn round and have a go ... but until you have been you dont know what its like to be told that you were the best person for the job ... even over qualified ... and he'd hire you like a shot ... BUT because you have epilepsy then he wasnt .... oh and being told that to your face by the interviewer ... its not nice ...

[Eric]

Originally Posted by jaysay

That is not always the case Eric, which a resent report verified

That's not my point. We are not talking about what some recent unnamed report has "verified" .... the thread is based on the report linked in the opening post. Nowhere in it is there any suggestion that incompetents are to be hired merely because they fit a particular profile. Look at what happened ... some guy used the term "usual rubbish", possibly because, like many of us, he considers that, like the warnings on cigarette packs, having to publish regulations every time an ad goes out is pc "rubbish" ... and this got published. As if none of us is aware that all jobs are open to qualified applicants regardless of race, religion, sexual orientation etc. And that's it. And because of the pc climate, this necessitates some unctuous bitch from Google Page Ranking, getting up on her hind legs and issuing ass-covering statements. To attack the whole affirmative action system, much of which is positive, based on such flimsy "evidence" is ... well, dumb ... and it serves no purpose other than to allow folks to sound off with their biases.

[Eric]

Originally Posted by Gordon Booth

You colonials are so crude. I'll bet you drive a Cadillac.

Oh, I forgot, I also ride a Harley Davidson ... pics are available in the Old Motors thread

[jaysay]

Originally Posted by Eric

That's not my point. We are not talking about what some recent unnamed report has "verified" .... the thread is based on the report linked in the opening post. Nowhere in it is there any suggestion that incompetents are to be hired merely because they fit a particular profile. Look at what happened ... some guy used the term "usual rubbish", possibly because, like many of us, he considers that, like the warnings on cigarette packs, having to publish regulations every time an ad goes out is pc "rubbish" ... and this got published. As if none of us is aware that all jobs are open to qualified applicants regardless of race, religion, sexual orientation etc. And that's it. And because of the pc climate, this necessitates some unctuous bitch from Google Page Ranking, getting up on her hind legs and issuing ass-covering statements. To attack the whole affirmative action system, much of which is positive, based on such flimsy "evidence" is ... well, dumb ... and it serves no purpose other than to allow folks to sound off with their biases.

I was talking about women still being paid less than men, these days its not always the case

[Gordon Booth]

Originally Posted by Eric

Oh, I forgot, I also ride a Harley Davidson ... pics are available in the Old Motors thread

I could get to hate you!
I lost my nerve the day I thought I'd killed my girlfriend and never rode again, but a Harley!! Yes please.

[Eric]

Originally Posted by jaysay

I was talking about women still being paid less than men, these days its not always the case

I realize it is not always the case. Things have changed a helluva lot since I was in clogs. But, whatever spin you put on it, equal pay for workd of equal value still ain't here yet. It's getting close ... but close only counts in horse shoes and hand grenades