The UK’s new MEPs all trundled off to their first session in Strasbourg yesterday and already a UK Independence Party member is making enemies. It seems they’re not just xenophobic, but sexist too. I briefly caught this story on the news last night and thought I must have misheard, but it’s covered by both the BBC and the Guardian so it must have happened.
UKIP MEP Godfrey Bloom has been quoted as saying “No self-respecting small businessman with a brain in the right place would ever employ a lady of child-bearing age”. He goes on to add other gems like “I want to deal with women’s issues because I just don’t think they clean behind the fridge enough” and “I am here to represent Yorkshire women, who always have dinner on the table when you get home”. Most parties would have demanded his resignation over this, but so far there’s no sign of the UKIP doing that.
Oh, and why was he being interviewed? He had just been given a place on the European Parliament’s women’s rights committee.
“No self-respecting small businessman with a brain in the right place would ever employ a lady of child-bearing age”.There is actually a serious point in that statement. There is greater liability on a business who employs women of child-bearing age. That is a fact that cannot be ignored.Blame the employment laws that have been passed to “protect” them. It makes them a liablity for a “small” business. They are counter-productive.Legistlating against someone discriminating on that basis is attempting to fix a broken law by forcing people to apply it regardless of their businesses best interests.Now, if that statement had come from someone who was intending to make a serious and valid point instead of other gems like “I want to deal with women’s issues because I just don’t think they clean behind the fridge enough” i’d be behind it 100%.Sure, it’s not fair. It’s not right, but a pregnant worker can bankrupt a company. Is it any wonder that there is discrimination?
I can’t remember ever hearing about a pregnant worker bankrupting a company. Can you? Or is that just a straw man you’ve thrown in to add weight to an extremely dodgy argument?
You aint heard of it because:”No self-respecting small businessman with a brain in the right place would ever employ a lady of child-bearing age”.Like it or not with current employment laws it is true.
Your argument doesn’t make much sense. If it was true that a pregnant worker could bankrupt a small company then it would almost certainly have happened by now.Unless you’re trying to tell me that there are no small businessmen with less than half a brain :)