8 SEPTEMBER 2001, Page 30

Women and the Tories

From Mrs Katie Grant Sir: Peta Buscombe ('Sometimes it's hard to be a Tory woman', 1 September) appears to think it enough to trot out that tired old Tory canard that women should get on in the party through merit. Look around you! Does this apply to the men? I could name 20 utterly useless male Tory MPs off the top of my head. And anyway, merit gets you nowhere. In Scotland, where Tory MSPs were sent to Holyrood through the list system — i.e. picked by the hierarchy — only three women were selected. Of the women rejected from the top of the list in favour of middle-aged, male ex-councillors, one was mother-ofthree Dr Kate Pickering, a fantastically articulate and attractive GP with a practice in an impoverished housing scheme, along with Dorothy Luckhurst and Margaret Mitchell, two more gifts to a Tory party wishing to promote a young and dynamic female image. Goodness me, the Scottish Tories even had the chance to send a stunning young Asian female candidate to Holyrood, which would have had the added advantage of making it the only party with an MSP from the ethnic minorities. Rejected, she subsequently defected to the SNP. She might have thought twice about that if the Tories had got her properly on board.

The facts of the matter are these: Tory men (and many Tory women) moan about wanting more women in Parliament, but their words are as idle as the bleatings of sheep. The Tory attitude towards women has reached about 1950. Give them another 50 years and they might just believe women are fit to go to university. After another 50, it might be conceded that, after very careful vetting for tendencies to get above ourselves, we might be let loose in public. And don't give me that tripe about Mrs Thatcher. She was the exception that proves the rule.

Katie Grant

Glasgow