women, stfu. kthxbye. tories + lib dems, xxx

When the Budget was announced this Summer, one facet of the backlash came from women’s rights campaigning group The Fawcett Society, who initiated a legal challenge against the Budget, on the grounds that it was unfair to women, who would bear the brunt of the majority of the cuts.

As we reported at the time, a gender audit of the budget showed that more than 70% of the revenue raised from direct tax and benefit changes would come from female taxpayers.This audit was initiated by the opposition, and took place only after the budget had been announced.

The Treasury are legally obliged to carry out a pre-budget audit to check any disproportionate impact on women, ethnic minorities , LGBT and disabled people. But they didn’t.

Theresa May, InEqualities Minister, even wrote to the Chancellor at them time warning him about the necessity of these audits (not to protect communities in need, of course – but to prevent them from suing the government).

This week, the Fawcett women were finally allowed to present their case in an initial hearing. A high court judge heard that the budget cuts were having a “grossly disproportionate and devastating” impact on women, as the group sought a declaration that the government had acted unlawfully by formulating the budget without paying due regard to gender equality laws.

Despite the government admitting that they hadn’t carried out any assessment on how the budget might unduly affect women, and that these assessments should have taken place, the judge dismissed the case, calling it “unarguable and academic”.

Well, alright then. So long as the Con Dems are willing to say that they ‘regret’ breaking the law and fucking over women (and potentially many other under represented groups), they can just do what they like? Thanks for clearing that up for us, Lord Fuckface.

But as well as the royal fucking over that we’re getting from the government this week, they’re also going to make it much easier for our employers to fuck us over, too. Yay!

Plans to force companies to disclose how much they pay men and women, and therefore embarrass them into paying women a fair wage, are to be scrapped. Instead, companies will be gently encouraged to narrow the pay gap – one of the worst in Europe – you know, if they can be bothered.

Sigh.