http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/politics/10303473.stm
Whilst I am all in favour of more women entering politics and reaching the top of government, I have to disagree with Harriet Harman that it is necessary for half the shadow cabinet seats to be filled by women.
From where I'm standing, I don't believe it is at all difficult now for a woman to climb the ladder in the Labour Party. The recent government can boast a large number of women in very senior Cabinet positions; Jacqui Smith, Margaret Beckett, Valerie Amos, Patricia Scotland, Tessa Jowell amongst many others, not to mention Harriet Harman herself.
Even in the Conservative Party, attitudes have moved on enormously in the last fifty years, since the days when Margaret Thatcher found it so difficult just to be selected as a parliamentary candidate. There were many women in the shadow Cabinets over the last 13 years, with Theresa May now our current Home Secretary.
Politicians should be allowed to progress on merit. Let's leave it at that.
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