Archive for Policies and Consultations

Policy on Women’s Rights

February 5, 2012 jonathanbishop No comments

It is my view that women should not seek to treated the same way as men but should assert their own identity and expect to be treated equally to them by their differences being taken into account.

Consider for a moment this jovial comment:

My wife is so funny – so typical of women. She always gets me to put the toilet seat down. Why doesn’t she put it up for me?!

Would you say this was sexist? If yes then you need to question your ethics. By not accepting that women have different needs to men, then people are being institutionally discriminatory on the grounds of sex. Treating women equally means treating them differently. One would treat women the same if they were made to use the same urinals as men – but they would not have equal access to relive themselves as men unless there were WC cubicles installed.

I set out below my policies in relation to women’s rights.

The Status Quo

These are a number policies that are currently law relating to women that I agree with:

  • All women-short-lists are a proportionate means to acheive a legitimate aim of increasing the number of women in public life.
  • In the case of interviewing people for employment, where there is a tie between a man and a woman, the woman should be treated more favourably, except if the man is disabled and she isn’t.
  • Women who have new born children should be allowed to bring them into the workplace and be able to breast feed them if they wish providing they are never left unsupervised, for their own protection as any.
  • Women with young children should be allowed to ask for flexible working in order that their job supports their family life rather than detract from it.
  • Women should have the right to abortion – It is inhuman and degrading treatment to expect her to carry a foetus she doesn’t want.

New Rights

These are a number of new rights I want women to have:

  • When a woman is the best person for the job, she should be given the right to request that the second best candidate be offered the chance to job share with her if she wants flexible working.
  • Women who are in self-employment should have the same access to maternity pay and other rights as women who are employed.
  • A woman should have a statutory right to have her embryos frozen so that she can have her career without the risk of sacrificing her chance to found a family afterwards.

These are the rights I want women and parents/guardians in general to have:

  • Where a parent has a child with behavioural difficulties they should immediately qualify for a Blue Badge and be able to park in disabled parking spaces.
  • All ‘accessible toilets’ currently for disabled people should be fitted with baby changing facilities and other essential features a mother (or other parent) and child might need.
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Policy on Media Ratings and Vulnerable Person Protection

February 4, 2012 jonathanbishop No comments

I have expressed various concerns in the past on the nature of televisual material, such as music videos, with a lot of sexualised content. Being a man over the age of majority this is quite appealing to me, but as a supporter of the NSPCC I am concerned about the sexualisation of childhood. Also, as an egalitarian, believing in treating people as individuals and not based on arbitory criteria which may not apply to them, I have now pretty much finalised my policy on media ratings and the protection of children and other vulnerable persons.

A standardised media rating system

Instead of age-based ratings there would be the following, regardless of media type (e.g. DVD/website/TV-channel):

  • Universal – All exempt media and those currently suitable for all ages
  • Parental Advisory – All media currently rated PG and 12-15. Parental in this context could refer to a legal guardian in the case of vulnerable adults.
  • Explicit – All media currently rated 18 or X-Rated.

A national media rating authority

The Video Recording Act is administered by the British Board of Film Classification. I would like their remit to be extended to all media, from advertising to music videos, from video games to websites (and other hypermedia systems).

In terms of video and advertising they should have to rate them in advance, and this would be the case for software and video games to that fall within the definition of the VRA as needed to be pre-authorised. In terms of websites and other more immediate consumer-generated media sources, the BBFC would only rate following a complaint. This could be referred to them by the Advertising Authority for instance. In other cases, standard anti-virus software could runs scripts that rate the content and block any content as appropriate based on the parental control settings.

Enforceability

Each media outlet would be responsible in the short term for setting its own policy to determine who they deem as appropriate to view the specific media. This could be based on age-discrimination in the short term. They would be legally responsible for any psychiatric injury.

In the future, media outlets would have to use pre-screening technology where they could “reasonably foresee” that a particular person would not be suitable for a particular rating. Such as a child for an Explicit movie. This person would then have to watch a short video clip and then depending on how much this distresses them, measured by emotion recognition technology, then that would determine which media rating they are suitable to.

In terms of home-based media, parents/guardians would be responsible for maintaining the parental controls. It would be their choice about whether they let their children or vulnerable dependent see explicit content or not, but the child protection authorities could intervene if they thought this was having an adverse affect on the welling being of the vulnerable person.

Any media outlet that did not put proper protection in place, including websites like chatrooms/messageboards, would be criminally liable. Such offences could including making sexualised or violent context available to vulnerable persons without their parent/guardians consent. This may include sexual jokes one would not want one’s children to see, but others do not show discretion in relaying.

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Policy on European Union Referenda and Parliamentary Sovereignty

October 30, 2011 jonathanbishop No comments

My policies on ‘transfer of powers’ to the EU and the role of UK legislatures are as follows:

1. Any EU measure that would change the fabric of the UK’s culture and identity should require a referendum. This would include:

  • The euro, which would change our currency;
  • Weights and measures, which would change the way that people order things like alcohol;
  • Entry or exit of the EU, which would affect the rights we enjoy to trade with and visit the EU; and
  • Anything else of a ‘constitutional character’.

2. Any EU measure that would change the fabric of law and order in the UK would require a resolution to be passed in each UK legislature before being adopted formally. This would include;

  • EU Directives, which require ‘transposition’ and would need to be repealed if the UK left the EU; and
  • EU Court (CJEU) Judgements, which would change the Common Law.

3. The following types of EU law should be used in preference of those in 2:

  • EU Court (CJEU) Decisions, which affect only the parties involved in the hearing; and
  • EU Regulations, which apply to everyone in the EU, and are separate from and preserve national law.

Conclusion
The essences of my policy are:

  • ‘We should work better in Europe and get more out of Europe‘.
  • ‘We should be in Europe and running Europe‘
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Policy on United Kingdom Membership of the euro

September 21, 2011 jonathanbishop No comments

I believe in principle that every country that is part of the European Union should be working towards full economic convergence while being independent politically and culturally unique whilst dependent on one another.

I would only support the UK joining the euro if the following applied:

1. The interest rate set by the Bank of England was the same as the European Central Bank for a sustained period;

2. The exchange rate between Sterling and the euro was stable for a sustained period before being locked to the euro; and

3. This exchange rate reflected over that sustained period convergence in goods prices and wages between the Eurozone and the UK.

I believe that if Wales had complete independence from the rest of the UK in terms of political and economic control then these criteria would be easier to meet as it would manage its own fiscal policy and its economy would not be driven by the South East of England, which since the 1980s has always grown at a different rate from the rest of the EU and indeed the UK.

Euro-membership could be sped up even with this criteria if the EU was to agree to wage subsidies so on membership to bring wages in line with goods prices, in order to avoid a repeat of what happened in Greece, which people like myself knew was going to happen before it did.

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