I think that there is a serious problem with the positive action provisions in the Equality Act.
The problem lies not in the principle of positive action (or positive discrimination if you prefer, I don’t care what you call it) but in how the provisions are drafted and what the coalition government is going to do about implementing them. Remember, the Equality Act does not come into force automatically, each provision needs to be brought in to force by Ministerial order. The Ministers responsible for this are the dream team of Theresa May of the Conservatives and Lynne Featherstone of the Liberal Democrats. In Parliament the Conservatives strongly opposed the positive action measures while the Liberal Democrats supported them – but that’s not the problem.
