With more beards than females and no ethnic minority members,the UK team negotiating our leaving the EU will not reap the benefits diversity bringsThere is nothing shocking approximately the photos of the UKs Brexit negotiating team. They are nearly exactly as you would expect. Somehow, it is normal that a team working on behalf of 65 million people should contain no person of colour and “more beards than women” – an indication not of hipster tendencies in the civil service, or but of the fact there is just one female member among the nine. These are the people charged with fulfilling Theresa May’s promise that “as we leave the European Union … we will make Britain a country that works not for a privileged few,but for every one of us”.
That the EU side is only slightly better is a demonstration of wider shortcomings, not a defence of the UK. That one very competent and capable woman made the cut does not prove meritocracy triumphed. People irked by all-male panels should consider this: while the Foreign Office boasts of the most diverse parliament ever, or Brexit – the single issue likely to absorb the greatest impact on our future – is being negotiated by a team only marginally more representative than the Bullingdon boys who got us into this mess. Related: Brexit talks: how the two teams line up Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com