Dismantling the Equality Monster
Posted by Sammy Wilson, MP for East Antrim, at 12:13, Mon 7 February 2011:
Not for the first time a row erupted in the Assembly this week over criticisms levelled at the Education Minister. Sinn Fein objected to descriptions of the minister as a bully, malevolent and biased even though the words used reflect accurately the way in which she has carried out her duties and are justified by the generally held view that she must be the worst minister ever. Using their usual tactics Sinn Fein tried to have the accuser Michelle McIlveen gagged by appealing to the Speaker to rule her comments as unparliamentary.
The thought police have been out in force this week and we should be very afraid of where we as a country will end up if they had their way. The one thing, which is very clear, is that the liberal left who seem to permeate our political institutions, the media and the courts are the most intolerant bunch of bigots imaginable and will go to any lengths to impose their views on us all.
I laughed when Theresa May the Home Secretary and Yvette Cooper the new shadow Home Secretary faced each other across the dispatch box at Westminster for the first time on Monday. One joker commented that it was nice to see women where they should be in the home (long pause lots of gasps) office. To most this will be viewed a clever play on words, to the politically correct thought police a sexist joke. No doubt Harriet Harman the humourless head of the Labour Party’s thought police is on the trail of the ‘sexist Neanderthal’ who dared to introduce humour into proceedings.
The media has been getting itself worked into a frenzy this week regarding remarks made about a female referee and her knowledge of the offside rule. They weren’t even made on air they were private comments made to his mate but unfortunately recorded and then made public. The furore has cost him his job. To the thought police he was chauvinistic to others he was just being a jack the lad. I don’t know much about the offside rule but I have heard far harsher remarks made about decisions made by male referees, the referee Sian Massey seems not to be offended and to be frank anyone who has attended a football match and heard some of the names the referee has been called will wonder what the hysteria was about. The incident certainly did not justify hounding a man out of his job.
This week saw an even more worrying development when the courts handed down a hefty fine to a Christian husband and wife who refused to permit a homosexual couple to stay in their guest house because their behaviour offended their deeply held religious beliefs. The judge made it clear that Christian values could not take precedence over the rights of the two men involved. They could of course have found alternative accommodation which would have permitted them to have their weekend holiday while at the same time allowing the hotel owners to honour their faith but not so in the new world of the intolerant liberal left. The new fascism brooks no tolerance for values, which it does not share. That is why we should all be worried.
There is now a whole industry grown up to ensure that the wishes of the thought police are pursued and embedded at every level of public policy. This is ensured by the powers given to the Equality Commission, and the Human Rights Commission. Every action of government must be tested to ensure that it does not offend against some minority or other. Millions are spent to ascertain whether conserving fish stocks might discriminate against lesbians or speakers of the Welsh language. Massive efforts are put into measuring the impact of insulation grants on people who are in civil partnerships. Even the celebrations for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee are not exempt from an equality impact assessment.
This industry is the result of the combined efforts of the thought police and costs N.I. tens of millions of pounds each year. The work now required to satisfy its demands delays decisions and never adds any value to the quality of those decisions. In the interests of our freedom and our pockets we could do worse than to use the present economic difficulties as an opportunity to start dismantling the monster.
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Posted by Hugh Marcus, 11:23, Tue 8 February 2011: (Is this post abusive?) #
Most sensible people (while not perhaps endorsing all of Sammy's views) would agree that the whole 'equality juggernaut' has gone too far. This is a classic case of the law of unintended consequences.
Given that most of the origins of NI's equality agenda and structures were included in the Belfast Agreement, does he have any idea how it can be controlled?
Posted by Sammy Wilson, 14:21, Wed 23 February 2011: (Is this post abusive?) #
Thank you very much for your comment regarding my views on the equality juggernaut. Obviously, there are difficulties in dismantling a lot of the equality legislation because of the need for a cross-community vote as laid down in the Belfast Agreement and a safeguard which, of course, we have been able to use to stop any furtherance of some of the things which were contained in the Belfast Agreement such as cross-border bodies etc.
I believe that the best opportunity for bringing this equality nonsense to heel is the budgetary constraints which inevitably we are all going to face over the next number of years. The equality industry thrives on having more money to employ more staff, take up more cases, interfere in more areas and I think that there are very legitimate reasons why we should be spending considerably less money on the budgets of the Human Rights Commission, the Equality Commission etc and I believe that the public would find this totally justifiable given the pressures which there are on health services and education which should have a higher priority in the allocation of money.
At the end of the day, of course, I would love to see the law changed and the role of the Equality Commission and the impositions which it can place on Government departments etc reduced but this will be a long term goal and will require considerable political management.