Quotas for women MPS are no way to solve the pornography scandal
SIR – As a response to a number of unsavoury scandals (including the viewing of pornography by an MP on his phone in the chamber of the Commons), the Conservative Party has indicated that in the future half its MPS will be women (report, May 1).
Surely what is needed to enhance the reputation of Parliament is not quotas for any given group, but rather all political parties ensuring that at the selection stage there is an effective weeding out of candidates with the slightest tendency towards stupidity, cupidity or perversion.
With a little rigour and common sense, can this be so difficult? Christopher Minter
Stowmarket, Suffolk
SIR – Reports of misogyny in the modern-day Conservative Party are deeply disturbing.
As MP for Louth in 1980, I had a wife, a daughter, a Queen, a prime minister, a president of my constituency association, a chairman of the association, a secretary and an agent – all of them were women. What a lucky man I was.
Michael Brotherton
Chippenham, Wiltshire
SIR – Half of MPS must be women? I do not care if my MP is male, female, black, white or sky-blue pink with a yellow border, so long as it is the right person for the job. Am I alone in this? Brenda Hill
Monmouth
SIR – Tractors? Pornography? What else? MPS could try paying attention to what is going on in the chamber. That would be a change for some of them.
The answer is glaringly obvious – just ban the use of phones in the chamber.
Wesley Hallam
Batheaston, Somerset
SIR – What amazes me whenever I see footage of the House of Commons in session is the number of MPS busy with their phones. If these supposedly mature and responsible people cannot get over their childish addiction to their phones, then they should be treated as children and their phones taken from them when they enter the chamber, and, to defeat the smugglers, the Wi-fi in the chamber should be disconnected.
Andrew Dyke
London N21
SIR – The BBC website asks whether the House of Commons has a problem with misogyny. Well maybe, but its chief characteristics appear currently to be hypocrisy and witch-hunting. Andrew Cohen
Guildford, Surrey
SIR – Logic suggests that if porn is unacceptable in the Commons the same applies to the country at large. I therefore look forward to hearing a statement from a courageous MP, from any party, condemning pornography and calling for a ban on its production and dissemination.
A G Waring
Kingsbridge, Devon