Positive discrimination

An interesting article has been posted here on Conservative Home this evening. Clearly there is positive discrimination at play in the selection of candidates to the Priority List of Candidates. Before commenting further, I must declare I am one of the 62 men. As someone who stood in Blaenau Gwent in the 2005 General Election, I need no reminding of an electorate’s potential for voting strongly against candidates selected by positive discrimination. Consequently, I believe the Conservative Party is right to be against the imposition of ‘all women short lists’. However, what is it to do when confronted by such an obvious lack of female representation within its Parliamentary party? The Priority List has been its answer. I, like many, am uncomfortable about any process that is not strictly meritocratic, however, the present system appears a compromise worth making in the short term in order to rectify such an embarrassing representational imbalance.