The male embrace

In one of the programmes celebrating the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights the BBC played a clip of Eleanor Roosevelt saying: This is for all men, everywhere!

I came over a bit warm & nostalgic – I am damn sure that Mrs Roosevelt never thought for one moment that anyone might think that she was excluding half the human race from the charter

Then I heard the last quarter of Westminster Hour on Sunday evening, an intriguing new series The Draftsman's Contract about the people responsible for turning policy into the legal language of Acts of Parliament. We overheard a snippet from a meeting at which the First Parliamentary Counsel, the splendidly named Stephen Laws, could be heard congratulating staff for the good progress made in gender neutral drafting

This must be welcomed in an age when, for so many people, man excludes woman

But I can’t help but feel a pang of regret for the loss of the male embrace

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