WHEN we profiled North Yorkshire's equality crusader last month, the article was headlined: "Meet Mr Taylor, the man who never gave in".

That past tense now seems a little hasty. Despite his retirement from the national committee of equal rights group Parity, he is still not giving in.

Millions of men have cause to be grateful for John Taylor's campaigning zeal. His greatest victory was when he emerged from the European Court with a landmark ruling which forced the Government to give winter fuel payments to men five years earlier, at 60 - the same as for women.

This triumph for tenacity has cost the Department of Social Security £85 million a year. Not a bad result for the former postman from Norton.

Now he has something else to celebrate. Mr Taylor and Parity have won a case which will see one million men to enjoy the same cut-price bus travel as their women peers. That is another tremendous success against a Government which is strangely reluctant to ensure pensioner parity, while at the same time funding a campaign against age discrimination in the workplace.

Mr Taylor's single-minded determination is his greatest asset as a campaigner. Unfortunately, however, it has also led him to take up the cudgels against the all-women fundraising event, Race For Life.

This is the wrong target. Race For Life is so successful because it is done by women, for women, to help stop cancers which kill women. Many participants are attracted by the non-competitive atmosphere and sharing of a common bond created by this single sex event.

We understand that Mr Taylor, who lost his daughter to cancer, feels strongly on this issue. But it should be possible to campaign for equality while celebrating the differences between men and women.

We would rather he leant his formidable organisational skills to organising a male equivalent to Race For Life, rather than bog down this excellent charity in an inappropriate battle of the sexes.

Updated: 10:22 Tuesday, March 25, 2003