politician, victoria atkins. she said we should be very careful about creating laws that inadvertently conflict with the basic principle of equality. she said, if we're to have a hate crime in relation to gender, we need to think very carefully about whether that would apply to the entire population orjust to the half of it that is female, �*cause, ultimately, she says, remember, women are not a minority and shouldn�*t be treated as such. that... but she�*s really, really falling down that great well, that even women who are trained in the law can fall down, which is, you know, we argued for equality. all right, so we want equality between men and women. you don�*t achieve it byjust saying, "let�*s have equality." you actually have to be very active in trying to ameliorate the terrible things that have happened in the past, which have prevented there being equality. so announcing, "let�*s have equality, "and let�*s tomorrow say that all the laws that apply to men "should apply to women too,