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

Harriet Harman: If You're Middle Class, You Can't Work Here
Photo of Harriet Harman courtesy of The Telegraph
THE TELEGRAPH: Simon Heffer wonders if Miss Harman is modelling herself on Stalin with her latest attempts to remove Britain's class divide.

With all the zeal of one born into upper-middle-class comfort – she is, after all, the niece of an earl – Harriet Harman is setting out to remove Britain's class divide . She has done her bit by marrying a prominent trade unionist; though the gilt went off that particular piece of gingerbread when she contrived to send one of her children to a school miles from her home to get a decent education.

However comical it may seem, Miss Harman thinks she has a chance of being the next leader of the Labour Party. Those who want to accept this increasingly poisoned chalice know they must grease up to Labour's somewhat neglected core vote of disadvantaged working-class people and the hard Left. Miss Harman does it by saying she will ensure that working-class people have the same advantages as middle-class ones. >>> By Simon Heffer | Friday, January 16, 2009

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