By election women

Currently there are two interesting by-elections coming up in the UK. One in Sedgefield, caused by the happy occasion of Blair's departure and one cause by the rather sadder news that the sitting MP, Piara Khabra, had died.

Out of fifteen candidates for the posts only one is a woman. One. Out of fifteen. Hmmm.

I know there's been a lot of hoo and ha about whether the Ealing Southall candidate should be Asian, to reflect 47% of the constituency (five out of seven candidates are Asian, or of Asian descent), but more than 50% of the constituency are women - or is that fact not politically significant?

I'm not someone who's particularly hell bent on seeing positive discrimination, I like seeing talent rewarded not accidents of biology and I always give a shudder when an appointment seems tokenistic - but one out of fifteen... come on lads, give the little ladies some elbow room!

Hopefully, Sarah Edwards (Green Party) can make some headway among the bullish crowd of testosterone soaked apparatchiks that are currently polluting the field - and the 22% she received at the last council election certainly shows she has *some* base to work with. Good luck.