Friday 1 October 2010

Ed West: The Equality Act Is the Triumph of Identity Politics and Possibly the Worst Law in English History

THE TELEGRAPH – BLOGS – ED WEST: We’ve finally reached rock bottom, with Harriet Harman’s Equality Act, which comes into force today. Where do I begin? (Quotations are from the Telegraph report.)

“An employee who had been disciplined for taking a lot of sickness leave could also claim they had been treated unfairly.

“The Equality Act will make it easier for staff to claim they were discriminated against because of a disability. This is because they no longer have to prove they were treated less favourably than non-disabled colleagues.

“The new law also stops colleges from preventing teenage girls at school who are pregnant or who have had a baby from taking their A-levels.”

Now I dare say that when historians of the 25th century come to write about the downfall of European civilisation this law will be used to illustrate how Western thinking lost its way, and how a perverse ideology that took hold of universities in the 1960s came to dominate politics.

It is ironic that when anti-discrimination laws were first brought in they were supposed to ensure that people were judged by their abilities; now the triumph of identity politics is complete with an “anti-discrimination” law that ensures that to judge a person by their character is illegal.

“The Government also expects discrimination claims from dyslexic workers who have been barred from carrying out tasks because of tendency to make spelling mistakes.”

Perhaps unconsciously mirroring the seven deadly sins of Christianity, the law tackles seven types of discrimination, including: Continue reading and comment >>> Ed West | Friday, October 01, 2010