The problem with equality

"Parliament is still far from representative. This matters, but not for the reasons often given. It is not, as Katharine Viner wrote in the Guardian days after the election, because 'the millionaire who slashes away at public services can have no true understanding of the affect of the loss of those services on the single mother with nowhere else to go.' Such objections are common, but are also premised on a pernicious idea that weakens the case of many of those calling for greater representation: that in order to speak for a group, someone must be a member of that group. Muslims need Muslims in parliament to speak for them, women need women, and so on. This is fundamentally incoherent."

Article in latest issue of Prospect.