The Daily Echo 15 March 2007

Written by Sandra Gidley MP on Fri 16th Mar 2007

Last week Patrick Mercer was sacked from the Conservative front bench. He was sacked because he made some comments about ethnic minorities which were deemed unacceptable, or politically incorrect, by his leader.

Patrick Mercer may be from another political party but he has always struck me as plain speaking, straightforward and honest. Shouldn't that be a most prized characteristic of our politicians?

Some were quick to condemn his remarks but it is fascinating to note that many of those who served alongside him have leapt to defend him by telling the world he is not racist. All he is guilty of is not realising how his remarks would have been interpreted by all those keen to attack the first hint of political correctness.

Don't get me wrong - discrimination in all its forms is vile and unacceptable. I have suffered discrimination because I have been a woman and I have experienced bullying because of my red hair.

Patrick Mercer commented that red haired soldiers had a harder time than black soldiers and some commentators over the weekend expressed the view that redheads were discriminated against. This is pushing the argument a bit. People might call me names and it might not be very pleasant but I do not think I have ever been denied a job because of my red hair or had my salary scaled down. Bullying and antisocial yes and it could even go some way to explaining why many redheads are a little feisty! I would not call it discrimination. There is a slight caveat to that because many people commented that Neil Kinnock would never be Prime Minister because he was a redhead. No one would dare say the same thing about an ethnic minority politician.

We have reached a situation where people are almost afraid to open their mouths for fear of causing offence. I once told an anecdote involving Ann Widdecombe and someone later accused me of being "sizeist". In fact I thought it was quite a nice story about Ann but one key aspect, taken out of context, had been seized upon. I now find myself regularly using the phrase "service user". I hate the phrase but a politician uses an alternative one at their peril. Someone at an interview used the word "homosexual" rather than "gay" and was accused of being homophobic.

All of this political correctness provides a smokescreen. Whilst we are busy arguing about language we are sometimes ignoring the discrimination that is in our midst. Isn't it about time we judged people by what they do rather than nitpicking over what they say?

Published with kind permission of the Daily Echo