Labour’s seat of real sexism

SHADOW environment Secretary Kerry McCarthy is not afraid of tackling the big issues.

Top of her agenda is the appalling sexism suffered by lady fish-catchers. Ms McCarthy dislikes the term ‘fishermen’, as it is not sufficiently ‘gender neutral’, and suggests ‘fishers’ as a possible alternative.

Somehow I don’t imagine that the sort of woman who spends her life on a trawler in the North Sea is that bothered by semantics.

either way, wouldn’t a better target for Ms McCarthy’s ire be the pictures that emerged yesterday showing Muslim women sitting apart from men at a Labour campaign event for the Oldham by-election?

That’s not just sexist — it’s sinister and dangerous and profoundly un-British. THE choice of Paris for a climatechange summit seems perverse. It’s congested enough as it is without adding 40,000 delegates. Most of all, it seems ridiculous to be discussing reduction targets with countries that have no intention of respecting them (China, India) when the real threat to our safety is from the lunatics who killed 130 people barely a fortnight ago.