The Register is not known for its nuanced opinions. In many ways that’s one of the reasons I like it. And no site manages to include ‘Snafoo’ as an almost-daily headline. Goord bless’m.

That’s why, from time-to-time, the absence of Register-style judgement on the contents of a particular story is telling. Take this doozy, for example:

UK IT should ‘fire men first’, says Kate Craig-Wood
Expensive blokes’ jobs should be gendersourced

You can kind’ve hear the the journalist stepping back. ‘Whoa! I’m staying out of this one’.

Mind you, some stories don’t really need ridiculing.

Katie Craig-Wood has a point when she says that women, on average, are paid less than men in IT. If a woman is doing the same job, equally well, for less money, it’s a no-brainer… fire the man. Any objective pay audit should see to that immediately. But don’t fire him because he’s a man.

It’s also important to take Katie’s point about a ‘boy’s club mentality’ keeping men in jobs above women, and this, too, is a real danger, even if the club in question is likely to be nothing more threatening than the local D&D LARP.

Yes, I’m being flippant. Actually, I think it’s just as well someone like Kate is coming along and saying this. It ain’t subtle, and it ain’t even right. This article might cause people to sit up and take notice of the inherent gender-bias in the system, but it shouldn’t do so by creating another one. I’m simply resistant to a literal interpretation of the ‘fire the men first’ sentiment.

Now go make me a cup of tea love.