Helicomparator - that was an excellent and perceptive set of posts, not rants at all. Thank you.
What you describe is indeed a modern British problem, thanks largely to some well intentioned but very silly and badly written employment legislation, notionally about 'equality' but actually working against capability, competence and common sense. As you said. And sadly, ultimately that risks and costs lives. Hard fact.
This is an issue in lots of areas of engineering and business, not just in our aviation world.
I'm afraid the 'politically correct' lobby in HR and the legal side have a lot to answer for. Sometimes truth and PC behaviour don't go together.
Darned if I can see an answer, since the 'powers that be' are unlikely to have the bottle to grasp the real root causes and sort 'em out. Much easier to make soothing management speak noises.