´óÏó´«Ã½

France has started implementing a ban on the burqa from today. What implications it bears for the process of assimilation and risks of further alienation? I hope newsnight will invite comments from well-informed and qualified experts such as Justin Gest author of Apart: Alienated and Engaged Muslims in the West.

Dr. Gest is co-director of the Migration Studies Unit and examines socio-political alienation among Muslim minorities in western democracies.

WESTMINSTER WOE-MEN

Gender means next-to-nothing, at Westminster. The woe-men come through the same selection process as the 'men' - those who suit, have something of the Blight about them; the Westminster Blight.

Even Sarah Wollaston, while making a small protest regarding the PPS yoke, remains, unprotesting in that appalling place. And Caroline Lucas, paused to call Westminster 'Hogwarts on steroids, but is not regularly heard to denounce its disgrace.

Disingenuous Dave is just window dressing again. Cue Caroline Flint.

There are some very talented women in both coalition parties who would really bring a fresh approach to politics. It might not be politics as we have had to put up with, but it might just be rather better. For all the complaints about Caroline Spelman, she has inherited a department with huge financial problems, with very little room to manoeuvre and she listened to what people said when her offering to save money by selling forests proved so unpopular. Lets hope the men running health listen really listen too. There are some women (and men) who perhaps don't really deserve their ministerial salaries but we must widen cabinet to include people who don't go to the same tailor as Dave, Nick and George. Jo Swinson would be a great addition for a start.

AY - WELL - UM (#3)

I watched Ms Swinson on Question Time. Something niggled. Now I read she was a marketing manager; marketing is, of course, Mammon-spin. I would be happier if she had been a hairdresser of chiropodist. Such individuals work closely with real people, and their clients feel BETTER after the encounter. (:o)

Well this is all very well, but what about ethnic minority ministers? Surely that is a bigger issue than the number of women.

'Chi Onwurah, the Labour MP for Newcastle Central, asked her why there aren't more women in the cabinet.'

Prompting me to wonder, along with the state of country-enhancing political reporting, what Parliament has been reduced to.

The sad thing is, I suspect some will indeed see merit in dancing to such sorry tunes.

Here we go again!

Positive discrimination, quotas, pandering to the PC brigade et al.

Given that many of the Conalition operate well below - for want of a more polite word - par one would seriously like to think that what we really need at the top of the ‘Essential’ list is .....

Competence.

Not - androgynous - window dressing!

It is by having people who are able to both see and show the different sides of an issue and its implications that can enrich viewers understanding of any important issue. You find a sidewalk 'magician' Yasmin Amlai in East London and invite Sam Harris a Ph.D. in neuroscience from UCLA and let them cancel each other out. Also you invite two Egypt born commentators making sure they are there to dismiss each other. Is this is the best way newsnight could cover matters about a minority's choices for outward expression? Viewers deserve better.

'EDGY' SHALL BE THE WHOLE OF THE LAW (#8)

Newsynighty is a toy for the very young, kaygee. I think the box said '3 - 5 years'.

We can no more influence the ´óÏó´«Ã½ than we can Westminster. It is called democracy, albeit No 26 in the world.

But why should we care? 5th largest GDP - 2nd largest military spending - ability to kill Johnnie foreigner in his own home - nuclear weapons (sort of) AND A MONARCHY.

And I don't want to hear a word about criminality, instability, violence, pregnancy, obesity, drunkenness or imported slave labour. We have a royal wedding and the Olympics - what can go wrong?

British and proud.

5. John
'Well this is all very well, but what about ethnic minority ministers? Surely that is a bigger issue than the number of women.'

Don't recall seeing or hearing of too many ethnic minorities (or women) in the Bullingdon Club over the years.

I wonder what prevents the producer from bringing the best learned opinion on the issue of the day i.e. veil and Muslim women's rights in Europe? Why we don't get to see established authors of books on immigrant integration and Islam in Europe? One is Jytte Klausen is Professor of Politics at Brandeis University and Research Associate at The Center for European Studies, at Harvard University. Her book The Islamic Challenge: Politics and Religion in Western Europe is based on three hundred interviews with European Muslim leaders from six European countries: Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, Great Britain, France, and Germany.

On what grounds viewers are denied access to such informed opinion. Does the producer prefer superficiality over substance? If not, then why are we short changed with a call in from New York with an Egyptian journalist?

Michael
As your self-imposed job is finding out stories within stories that politicians would prefer the world not to know, could you please shine some light on section 554E (8) of the Finance Bill which appears to allow MPs to receive disguised renumeration but closes all such loopholes for the public. Who requested this and is it still part of the Bill?
Apart from the Telegraph, who must already be personae non gratae post Expenses, I haven't come across this proposed exemption for MPs in anywhere else in the MSM.

A society has to take a stand on what it wants to stand for, and sometimes that means suppressing the opposition. The US had a civil war, partly about the ending of slavery. We don't allow child marriages, wife beating, genital mutilation, or many other things which are still acceptable in other parts of the world. A child will be taken into care if parents don't consent to life-saving medical treatment, or if they enforce an unsuitable diet.

I think of my paternal grandmother, born in the late 1880s. She had to wait until 1928 to get the vote in her own right, and not because she was married to my grandfather. She may not have been a householder, but she certainly the "reality qualification" and the "hard-working" qualification. She was also literate and knowledgeable. On the Russian side, my maternal grandmother, born in 1898 was a doctor, both general practitioner and eye specialist.

Last summer I saw a father with his son in the seaside resort where I live. They were happy and smiling, both wearing shorts and T shirts. Then, a few paces behind, I saw his wife and three daughters. I could not see whether they were smiling or not, as they were covered from head to toe in black. I felt it was an insult to my female ancestors who struggled for their rights and dignity.

As a mathematician with an interest in history, I greatly admire very many of the Islamic contributions to science and culture, but I find the attitude of parts of Islam towards women intolerable. Mind you, I also think is is a form of child abuse to tell children that a loving God will torture unbelievers for eternity in Hell.

In the end, societies have a right to enforce their own social mores. That isn't to say that these shouldn't be debated, but in the end freedoms can't be absolute. Freedoms for some inevitable preclude freedoms for others. We have to choose.

SC@13

The discrimination you refer to is surely more specifically about religious custom than about culture in the broader sense. Obviously if a society is totally dominated by one religion then it may adopt those beliefs either as law or by proxy.
While I cannot relate to or understand many religious customs and beliefs there are some which IMO give the individual more dignity and respect than contemporary 'western' moral values afford.
All religions/societies should be discouraged from discriminating against race, gender and age or denying people the basic human rights and freedoms as laid out in the UN's Charter and should be challenged if they choose to do so.
Sadly most if not all religions have some form of gender inequality or sexual discrimination. Best to avoid them and take your chances with the afterlife!

Utter nonsense and bad timing.
I want the best of the best in each and every Ministerial position - male or female without reverse discrimation; this includes The Minister for Women and Equalities.
This policy is patronizing to females; they are either good enough for the job, or they are not yet good enough for the job.
Has The Coalition Government thought about setting up a great, female, developing, political mond for failure by promoting or appointing her too soon - without sufficient experience - and how demoralizing this might be?

the LibDem lady on Question time was very poor, is that the best the LibDems can put up...come back Charlie.....

IT CAN ONLY GET WORSE (#16)

Dave is going to stuff his Cabinet with such rote-maidens.