ITV bans all-male writing teams.

Maybe it’s a joke. After all, she is ITV’s “Head of Comedy” but sadly, I doubt it. Saskia Schuster has announced a refusal to commission any script unless a woman has been involved in its writing. Is this even legal? Doesn’t it fall foul of the 1975 Sex Discrimination Act? And I’m not protesting because I’m male. I’d feel just as strongly if the publishing industry – which is almost 90% female – decided to discriminate against women by employing more men. Surely any form of discrimination is wrong. Shouldn’t all people be treated with equality, dignity and respect? Judged on talent rather than gender? But then “equality” is rarely about equality. It’s usually about the unfair favouring of one section of society over another and innocent people always suffer. Thank God the music industry isn’t (yet) like that. Because thousands of wonderful songs, including this one, would never have been recorded.