Offending glossary
Sir: Barbara Amiel is wrong about my views on equal opportunities (`The secret agenda of gender', 17 October).
The glossary of terms issued by the Cen- tral Council for Education and Training in Social Work (CCETSW) to which she takes exception, does not, as she implies, repre- sent either my or the Government's views. CCETSW operates at arm's length from the Department of Health. Ministers nei- ther see nor approve every word that it publishes. I agree with quite a lot of what Ms Arnie! says about the glossary. I too am concerned that, in some instances, this organisation has taken equal opportunities to extremes. I have asked Tim Yeo to look at how a more sensible and balanced approach might be encouraged.
It would have been better if Ms Arniel had asked for my views before accusing me of having 'effectively excluded any people from the field of social work but Marxist feminists or those who are prepared to lie about their adherence to this anti-oppres- sive creed'. I would also have been happy to tell her that the offending glossary was pub- lished four months before I joined the Department as Minister of Health.
Virginia Bottomley
Department of Health, Richmond House, 79 Whitehall, London SW1
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