Regarding Harriet Harman’s plans for positive discrimination (26 June, www.building.co.uk), many of these laws are reasonable but surely the government is allowing ethnic minorities the opportunity to claim racial discrimination if a white person with a similar set of skills and qualifications is selected for a position that they have both applied for?

This cannot be right because discrimination could work both ways. For example, a white person with a superior set of qualifications applying for a position with a company led by a foreign management team, may lose out to another applicant simply on the grounds of colour and race. In both cases it would be difficult to prove discrimination.

Postscript

R Webb

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