Labour intolerance

At the present time the Labour Government is pointing a finger at the Catholic Church, and shouting "intolerance". Why?

For many years, the Catholic Church has provided a very sucessful adoption service in Britain, placing and supporting a quarter of the total number of children, around 1000 per annum.

The Labour Government has been busy creating a blizzard of new legislation, much of it ill-conceived, with little thought about unintended consequences. The current disaster is a proposed law preventing discrimination. Theoretically this is a good thing, however, there are consequences. The Catholic Church has stated that it will discontinue their adoption service, as their conscience will not permit them to place children with practising homosexuals. Labour compounds their stupidity, by assuming that the Catholic Church is bluffing, but not everyone is motivated by ego and self agrandisement, in the way that certain individuals associted with the Labour party appear to be. Remember the ongoing cash for honours fiasco. It appears that Labour are suffering from snow-blindness of their own creation.

As an aside, Labour have an inability to avoid meddling, where things worked well enough already. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it!" We only have to think of the current constitutional crisis as an example. Typical Socialists: They make a mess, then blame everyone else for the ensuing chaos. Blame the Scottish Nationalist Party. Blame the English. Blame the Conservatives indeed! Surely the English are discriminated against, as our vote is now worth less than that of the Scottish voters? Strange that only English scoolchildren are being taught "Britishness". It is no wonder that so many are seeking the asylum of the British Isles: The lunatics have been in charge of the asylum for ten years.

Getting back to the main point about intolerance: The Labour Government is strongly critical of the Catholic Church, because of its apparent discrimination, when all that the Church is trying to do is for the best interests of the children.

However, Labour are perfectly happy to permit various forms of very harmful discrimination. Two examples that come to mind, are positive discrimination in the workplace, and Halal slaughter.

Giving someone a job or a promotion primarily due to their gender or ethnicity is very harmful. It is harmful to the more able candidates, who did not get the job. It is harmful to the employer, who has to carry someone who is not as capable. It is harmful for the person who has been promoted, as they may feel stressed up, and struggle to fulfill the role. It is harmful to other employees, who will certainly feel sidelined, and despairing of their own career prospects, which becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Positive discrimination is very obviously bad all round. Why cannot Labour see this? It is simply common sense.

Of course, once an employer has taken someone on under these circumstances, they cannot then sack them should the need arise. I have seen this with my own eyes:

Very briefly: One manager in my workplace had clearly been over-promoted, and was clearly not fulfilling his role. However, nobody was ever sacked for incompetence, so that in itself was not surprising. Unfortunately, this individual also had a habit of harassing female staff, who mostly did not appreciate his advances. Several resigned or moved to other departments. After a considerable delay this particular manager was pushed to one side, no doubt retaining a generous salary. What should have happened of course is that the matter should have been tackled much sooner. He should have been given a warning, and if the disruptive behaviour then persisted, he should have been sacked. That such action was not taken was probably due to his ethnic origin. Then the error was compounded by keeping him in a non-job, presumably to avoid the cost of a racial discrimination dispute, which would be costly in terms of lawyers fees and compensation, but also costly in terms of the ensuing negative publicity. It was clearly less costly to continue paying him a salary to do virtually nothing. What a mad state of affairs we have got ourselves into.

Of course, the vast bulk of employers, comprising small businesses, simply cannot afford to pay someone a salary to do nothing. The unintended consequences of Labour's positive discrimination attitude has been the exact reverse of the desired effect. It is a very brave employer who takes on someone who is likely to accuse them of racism at the earliest opportunity. What a mad state of affairs we have got ourselves into.

You may be automatically assuming that I am a racist for pointing out these truths. However, I can state that over the years I have had a number of very good and genuine frendships with people who are of different ethnic origins than myself.

Now consider the very real harm caused by another form of discrimination promoted by this Labour Government: This is Halal slaughter.

If a non-Muslim were to slaughter an animal by slitting its throat, they would, quite rightly, be arrested and prosecuted for cruelty to animals. That the very same act comitted by a Muslim should be legal, is simply bizarre. What a mad state of affairs we have got ourselves into.

Mine is not a lone voice crying in the wilderness. Here is a letter in The Daily Telegraph of 25th January 2007, which neatly makes a link between Catholic adoption and ritual slaughter.

Sir,
The Lord Chancellor's position is that there can be no exceptions from a law on the basis of religious beliefs. But there already are. The law requires animals for slaughter to be rendered unconscious, by stunning or other means, before being killed. However, both Jewish and Muslim ritual slaughter is exempt on the grounds of religious requirements.
Sam Levy
London SW11

I suspect that the way this issue will play out is that Catholics will continue to run their adoption service, not for the reason that it is providing a positive benefit, but because this Labour Government will be spooked by the logical next step of banning Halal slaughter. Labour have an unhealthy reliance on the Muslim vote. There have also been a number of abuses of the postal voting system.

British values once encompassed truthfulness, honesty, and decency. Where have they gone?


Humanity needs peace not Islam.