I admire your support for jake, sp1814.
As usual he has done a good job by drawing attention away from the sensationalist headline writers of the Daily Mail and that ilk.
However, whilst he is spot on with what he has said, he is not quite as spot on with what he has not said.
It is quite true that Ms Harman said that firms would not be forced to positively discriminate. However, whilst I was spitting out my Bite-sized Shredded Wheat she most certainly did say (and this is conveniently omitted from the BBC�s web article) that eventually all companies will be forced to publish their workforce�s diversity profile.
It will be but a short step from there to the first industrial tribunal under the new legislation, which will, by then, have been suitably "gold-plated" to encompass far more than Parliament intended.
The unsuccessful job applicant will successfully argue that his prospective employer should have considered the diversity profile of his workforce when recruiting. He (or most probably she) will be awarded a ridiculously large sum for �hurt feelings� and employers will find themselves hidebound by yet another piece of allegedly harmless legislation when making their everyday decisions.