SIR: I am writing in response to the letter from Mr Ivan A Cooper (BEN, March 20) in which he was attacking Ms Ruth Kelly for being pregnant and an MP too.
Firstly he claims that he was attacked by the Labour Party PC brigade and that he was the victim of a one-sided debate and then claims only to be worried about her health. This is far from the truth and smacks more of a typical Tory moan that nobody is on his side. The people who wrote in put out the clear message that he was completely out of tune with current thinking.
As Mr Meagher pointed out in his letter, women have played a vital role in keeping the wheels of the economy turning since the Industrial Revolution right through to the modern day. Nothing PC about that only historical truth. There are now 11,248 million women in the workforce compared to 11,236 million men, the first time in history that women have out-numbered men. In recent times more women have needed to find work because the decline of heavy industry has resulted in mass male unemployment. Increasingly women have found themselves the main bread winner.
With Mr Cooper being Chairman of Horwich Conservatives is this the generally held view of the modern Conservative Party and are these the new Conservative policies on equal opportunities in the work place?
Michael Hughes
Labour Party Member
(Address supplied) Michael Hughes
2, The Avenue
Bolton
BL2 1NX.
mj.hughes@zen.co.uk
I request that my address is withheld.
Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.
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