- Law 'will force churches to employ gay staff'
Daily telegraph
Law 'will force churches to employ gay staff'
Churches will be banned from turning down gay job applicants on the
grounds of their sexuality under new anti-discrimination laws, a
Government minister said.
By Matthew Moore
Last Updated: 9:19PM BST 20 May 2009
Religious groups are to be forced to accept homosexual youth workers,
secretaries and other staff, even if their faith holds same-sex
relationships to be sinful. Christian organisations fear that the
tightened legislation, which is due to come into force next year, will
undermine the integrity of churches and dilute their moral message.
It comes amid growing concern that Christians are being unfairly
targeted by discrimination laws, following a number of high-profile
cases of courts finding against believers who stand up for their faith.
Religious leaders had hoped to lobby for exemptions to the Equality Bill
but Maria Eagle, the deputy equalities minister, has now indicated that
it will cover almost all church employees. "The circumstances in which
religious institutions can practice anything less than full equality are
few and far between," she told delegates at the Faith, Homophobia,
Transphobia, & Human Rights conference in London. "While the state would
not intervene in narrowly ritual or doctrinal matters within faith
groups, these communities cannot claim that everything they run is
outside the scope of anti-discrimination law. "Members of faith groups
have a role in making the argument in their own communities for greater
LGBT acceptance, but in the meantime the state has a duty to protect
people from unfair treatment." Under existing equalities legislation,
any roles deemed to be necessary "for the purposes of an organised
religion" are excluded from gay rights protection. But the Equality
Bill, which is currently passing through parliament, for the first time
defines this as applying only to those who lead the liturgy or spend the
majority of the time teaching doctrine - essentially just ministers,
bishops and their equivalents in other faiths. A spokesman for the
Christian Institute, a religious charity, said that many churchgoers had
deep concerns about how the bill would be enforced and accused
politicians of hypocrisy. "It would be absurd to pass a law demanding
that the Labour Party employ card-carrying Conservative members, but
that is effectively what churches are being told to do. We just want the
same exceptions as political parties," he said. "Christians are sick to
the back teeth of equality and diversity laws that put them to the back
of the queue. We are quite prepared to accept that people will take a
different view to use on moral and ethical questions, but that should
not mean we have to withdraw from public life." Recent cases including
the nurse suspended for offering to pray for a patient and the British
Airways worker sent home for wearing a visible cross have left many
believers afraid to go public with their faith at work. Neil Addison, a
Roman Catholic barrister and expert on religious discrimination law,
said that the new legislation would leave churches powerless to defend
the fabric of their organisation. "This is a threat to religious
identity. What we are losing is the right for organisations to make free
choices," he said. A spokesman for the Church of England said that while
it supports the broad objectives of the Bill it "retains some concerns
about the practical application of some specific aspects". The Equality
Bill, which was introduced to the Commons by Harriet Harman, the
Minister for Women and Equality, will also strengthen laws against
gender, age and disability discrimination. A Government Equalities
Office spokesman said: "The Equality Bill will not force a church to
accept someone as a priest regardless of their sexual orientation or
gender. "Churches, synagogues, mosques and others will continue to have
the freedom to choose who they employ in jobs which promote their
religion. But where they provide services to the public they will have
to treat everyone fairly."
Daily telegraph
10% of models in Brazilian fashion week 'must be black' Organisers of a
Brazil fashion week agreed yesterday to ensure that 10 per cent of
models were non-white after prosecutors investigated claims that too few
black and mixed-race models were taking part.
By Our Foreign Staff
Last Updated: 6:33PM BST 22 May 2009
Models walk the runway at Ellus show held at Sao Paulo Fashion Week
Winter 2008 January 20, 2008 Sao Paulo, Brazil. Photo: Getty Images
Under the terms of the deal between prosecutors and organisers of Sao
Paulo Fashion Week brands must ensure that one out of every ten models
are of African or Indigenous descent. The new rule comes after an
investigation into last year's event discovered that only 2.3 per cent
of participants were black. Just eight of the 344 models in 2008's show
were non-white.
The Sao Paulo state prosecutor's office had threatened legal action
against the organisers unless they increased the number of black models.
Companies which fail to meet the new target could face fines of up to
$120,000 (£76,000), prosecutors said. The agreement is also largely
seen as a response to threats from a black rights group which planned to
disrupt the fashion week. The Educafro group had threatened to organise
a "black fashion week" beside the main event which is Latin America's
premier fashion week and runs from June 17-22. According to official
figures, just seven per cent of Brazil's famously varied population
consider themselves black – but another 43 per cent see themselves as
mixed-race, of African descent. The other 50 per cent call themselves
white. Despite nearly half of the population declaring themselves mixed
race, black Brazilian models have claimed it is easier to get work
abroad than at home.
Daily telegraph
FA can win 2018 World Cup bid by playing the race card It was a mixed
bunch drawn to the launch of England's bid to host the 2018 World Cup at
Wembley this week.
By Jim White
Last Updated: 10:51PM BST 21 May 2009
Football family: David Beckham poses with a racially diverse selection
of schoolchildren at the launch of England's bid to host the 2018 World
Cup Photo: PA In attendance were politicians desperately trying to
associate themselves with an issue that did not involve the filling-in
of an expenses form. Alongside them were celebrity players, their
tattoos temporarily concealed by sombre tailoring. In front of the
statue of Bobby Moore a photogenic posse of face-painted schoolchildren,
carefully chosen to reflect the nation's multi-ethnicity had been
assembled.
And watching it all unfold was Richard Barnbrook, London Assembly member
for Barking and big wig in the British National Party. The embarrassment
caused by his attendance was almost immediately felt. Here was a
celebration of modern English football, and there, replete with formal
invitation, was a representative of a bunch who advocate removing half
the members of the current national team from the country solely on the
basis of their skin tone (though quite where they seek to repatriate
them since every one of them was born here they are less able to
explain). Gerry Gable, publisher of the anti-fascist magazine
Searchlight, described Barnbrook's presence as "shameful". The Football
Association insisted that his invitation had gone out as a matter of
course, as it had to all elected members of the assembly. The BNP,
meanwhile, smirked that, as its electoral presence increased, "we'd
better get used" to seeing their members at official events. To prove
the point, it later emerged that Barnbrook had accepted an invite to a
forthcoming function at Buckingham Palace, and intended to take along
his party leader, the odious Nick Griffin, as his companion. Yet we
should not be too alarmed by Barnbrook's attendance at the event. In
fact, the exposure of his ilk to football can only undermine their
fatuous politics. Back in 1998, the success of a multi-racial French
team in the World Cup was widely credited with stalling the upward march
of Jean- Marie Le Pen's Front National party in that year's presidential
elections. Before the team of Marcel Desailly, Thierry Henry and Lilian
Thuram triumphed, Le Pen had been in serious contention in the final
round of voting. After Les Blues got their hands on the trophy, his
ludicrous policies of ethnic intolerance and his assumptions about how
only white people should be regarded as truly French were revealed as
comically fraudulent. He finished well off the pace. So it would be with
the World Cup in this country. Any serious consideration of the talent
likely to make up the 2018 England team would envisage it being largely
selected from mixed race players, the offspring of modern urban England.
In the face of their acceptance by the nation, the BNP's ugly agenda
would just look plain silly. Indeed, England has a bold opportunity in
the bidding process to emphasise how far the majority of this country is
removed from Barnbrook. And what a strength that is. Sure, we have
excellent stadiums, excellent communications and an infrastructure
capable of absorbing thousands of visiting fans. But we are not the only
bidders with that. Far more significantly, compared to some of the
rivals, England can justifiably present itself as a welcoming beacon of
tolerance. In Russia, black faces are routinely assaulted, on the
terraces in Spain they are routinely mocked, in Australia racial
intolerance finds far more routine articulation than it does here.
London is now the world's most diverse city, with representatives of
more than 200 nations living within its borders. The Premier League is
the world's most inclusive sporting competition, a weekly World Cup.
Anyone coming here should be able to find themselves a little home from
home. This is what can win England the right to host the competition.
The FA must make sure that from now on the bidding process features not
the parade of old white blokes in suits at the launch, bickering about
who represented the true soul of English football. Instead it should
have Kolo Toure explaining why he chooses to play here or Michael Essien
eulogising England's enormous strengths. Promote that and we wouldn't
have to worry about Richard Barnbrook coming into contact with football.
In fact, the product England has to sell for 2018 is the most vibrant
riposte imaginable to him and his slimy friends.
Daily telegraph
'Positive action' to boost staff diversity
The Government has given the green light to employers wanting to take
"positive action" to improve the diversity of their workforces.
By Richard Tyler
Last Updated: 4:43PM BST 27 Apr 2009
Under the Equalities Bill, published by Harriet Harman, minister for
women and equality, employers will be allowed to favour a person from an
under-represented group where there are two "equally suitable"
candidates. The Government said it expected this measure to help more
women and people from ethnic minority backgrounds find work.
But positive discrimination, seen in TV show Ugly Betty, where someone
is employed regardless of merit, will remain illegal. Business reacted
angrily to the surprise inclusion of new gender pay reporting
requirements for businesses with more than 250 staff. Charles Cotton,
from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, said: "It is
dishonest of policymakers to imply that [the pay gap] can be solved by
some magic bullet aimed at employers. "Voluntary pay reporting, with the
big stick of compulsory reporting looming in 2013, will do little more
than create bureaucracy and fuel employment law claims." ???I'll put
women in charge of banks: Harriet Harman's plans to use equality laws to
challenge macho City culture
By Michael Lea
Last updated at 10:48 PM on 06th May 2009
On a mission: Harriet Harman is determined to get more women on the
boards of nationalised banks, and could use her equality laws to do so
Harried Harman wants to use controversial new equality laws to pack the
boards of nationalised banks with women.
Labour's deputy leader is determined to boost the proportion of female
workers in the financial sector and end what she calls 'pay
discrimination' in the City.
She said last night that legal powers championed by her to discriminate
in favour of minorities could help achieve her ambition.
Some women MPs have claimed that the 'testosterone-fuelled' financial
meltdown could have been avoided if there had been more women in
decision-making positions.
But critics fear Miss Harman is signalling the Government plans to
become too closely involved in the daily running of the banks.
Ministers have always been clear they want to keep Whitehall
interference in RBS and Lloyds, in which taxpayers have a majority
stake, to a minimum.
Last night, at a Left-wing meeting on 'Women In The Recession' in
Parliament, Miss Harman said so-called 'positive action' would be 'there
for us' to put women on the boards of bailed-out banks.
Miss Harman's intervention came as she launched a staunch defence of her
Equality Bill, which allows firms to choose women or minorities ahead of
equally-qualified white males without risking being sued.
'Sometimes we have to take scary methods in order to achieve worthwhile
results,' she told a mainly female audience.
'It is about saying, "because you are a woman I'm going to put you in
this promotion".'
Miss Harman, who earlier this week was forced to deny she would stand
for the leadership if Gordon Brown resigned, also made a series of
populist appeals in her address.
Jobs for the girls: Ms Harman's plans have sparked fears that the
Government is becoming too closely involved with daily operations of
banks, such as RBS
She claimed that because women generally remained homemakers, the
recession caused them to fear not only for their own jobs, but also for
their husband's, for their children's futures, and for elderly
relatives.
'We have to worry more than men and we are definitely worrying more
about the recession than men are,' she said.
Domestic violence could also increase because couples whose
relationships had broken down could not sell their home and live apart,
she suggested.
On average, women earn 22.6 per cent less than men. But this rises to 40
per cent in the City - worse than in any other sector.
Proposals in the Equality Bill will force employers to reveal how much
they pay men compared with women, which critics say could hinder job
creation.
But Miss Harman, the Leader of the Commons, insisted last night: 'Fair
employers have nothing to fear but unfair employers have nowhere to
hide.'
In a statement likely to send shivers through the business community,
she also insisted the Equality Bill - which MPs will debate next week -
'will be the catalyst for further change'.
Critics warn the plan, dubbed 'socialism in one clause', will burden
firms with more red tape as they struggle in the recession.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1178140/Ill-women-charge-banks-Ha
rriet-Harmans-plans-use-equality-laws-challenge-macho-City-culture.html
Commission launches new funding programme
The Equality and Human Rights Commission has launched the first stage of
its new £10 million 'Strategic Funding Programme', providing three-year
funding of up to £450,000 for community and voluntary sector
organisations.
The Commission will particularly prioritise the following two areas:
Priority One – Providing guidance, advice and advocacy services;
infrastructure development and capacity building Priority Two – Good
Relations
Please note: a third priority, legal casework, will be launched later in
the summer of 2009.
The Commission is particularly keen to fund activity that directly
serves and involves individuals and local communities, that meets an
unmet need, and that has the potential to inspire and inform longer-term
activity that helps promote the Commission's objectives.
The new funding programme builds on the Commission's 2008-09 interim
programme, and is at the core of a soon to be launched three year
strategy which will set out the Commission's vision of a Britain built
on principles of fairness, equality and respect.
The new programme features:
1) A two-stage application process, which will include a short,
simplified first stage 'Outline Proposal Form'.
2) A new set of clearer eligibility criteria, including guidance on what
we will not fund, and a set of principles that show how we will
prioritise applications.
3) Multi-year funding options.
4) A series of funding surgeries across Wales, Scotland, and all nine
English Regions, from 18th May – 3rd June. These may include
presentations or half-day drop-in events giving an opportunity to talk
to local advisors and staff from the funding unit about the application
process in general, and our local priorities. First-time applicants are
particularly encouraged to attend these sessions. Please check our
website for further updates on these events; however, if you require
specific information about a funding surgery in your particular area,
then please see the list on our website to contact your local advisor.
Find out more
Read the full press release -
http://www.equalityhumanrights.com/en/newsandcomment/Pages/Commission-ann
ounces-£10-million-funding-programme-for-voluntary-and-community-sector.
aspx
Full details of the Strategic Funding Programme, including the Guidance
notes and the outline proposal form in a full range of accessible
formats are available at – www.equalityhumanrights.com/funding.
Find out how to apply for funding - our criteria, the forms and
resources to help you -
http://www.equalityhumanrights.com/en/aboutus/grants/Pages/Applyingforagr
ant.aspx
Find out more about the kind of organisations and work that we fund, and
read case studies -
http://www.equalityhumanrights.com/en/aboutus/grants/pages/infonaboutwhow
efund.aspx
Watch our video about projects who have already benefitted from our
funding -
http://www.equalityhumanrights.com/en/aboutus/grants/Pages/Fundedorganisa
tionsvideo.aspx
If you already receive funding from us - find out about monitoring and
evaluation and how we administer our funding programme -
http://www.equalityhumanrights.com/en/aboutus/grants/pages/informationfor
fundedorganisations.aspx
We regularly consult our stakeholders about our funding programme and
plans - find out more about our consultations -
http://www.equalityhumanrights.com/en/aboutus/grants/pages/fundingconsult
ations.aspx http://cecollect.com/ve/ZZy00hZtb71KC9288T To unsubscribe,
reply to this email and change the subject to be: unsubscribe
daily telegraph
Bible moved to top shelf in libraries to avoid upsetting Muslims. Don't
PC librarians make you sick?
Bible moved to top shelf in libraries to avoid upsetting Muslims. Don't
PC librarians make you sick? Posted By: Damian Thompson at Feb 18, 2009
at 10:55:58 [General] Posted in: Society , Religion
Public libraries are moving Bibles to their top shelves, in order to
comply with yet another demand by offence-taking Muslims.
One for the top shelf... (Photo: CC)
It seems that Muslims were "insulted" (their default mode) by the fact
that the Koran was sometimes placed on low or middle shelves. So they
insisted that it be put on the top shelf, "above all earthly things",
which means that libraries have also moved the Bible and all "holy
books" to the top. Now the ruling has been backed by the
government-funded Museums, Libraries and Archives Council, following
consultations with the Federation of Muslim Organisations. The prime
movers in this business appear to be those jolly folk, the librarians of
Leicester. What is it about librarians? When I was a boy, they were
already banning Enid Blyton and Billy Bunter for "reinforcing
stereotypes". The jobsworth mentality that we associated with library
fines is now being applied to everything multi-culti, with gruesome
results. I think I'll pay a special visit to my local (super-PC) library
this afternoon and have a look at the "holy books". And then maybe do a
little rearranging of my own.
daily telegraph
Queen's medal 'unlawful' for being too Christian A distinguished medal
awarded by the Queen has been declared unlawful because of its Christian
overtures after a legal case launched by Muslims and Hindus from a
Caribbean island.
Last Updated: 7:22PM BST 08 May 2009
The Privy Council has ruled in favour of non-Christians from Trinidad
and Tobago saying that the Trinity Cross of the Order of Trinity was
unconstitutional because of its associations with Christianity. Despite
the award for distinguished service and bravery being instituted 40
years ago the decoration will now be withdraw. But the 62 recipients,
who include the novelist VS Naipaul and the cricketers Sir Garfield
Sobers and Brian Lara, will not be stripped of their medal, which took
precedence over all other decorations bar the Victoria Cross and George
Cross.
The right to equality and freedom of conscience and belief was breached
by the Trinity Cross, five British law lords ruled. In the Privy Council
judgement Lord Hope of Craighead, said the Trinity Cross was "perceived
by Hindus and Muslims living in Trinidad and Tobago as an overtly
Christian symbol both in name and in substance". He said that it
breached the islands' Constitution of 1976. The court order would not be
retrospective which will allow those with the cross to retain it. The
case was brought by groups representing Trinidad and Tobago's Muslim and
Hindu communities who make up a third of the population. The Cabinet
Office, which controls honours in Britain, said the ruling on other
British awards would be looked at by lawyers, The Times reported. A
Cabinet Office spokesman said: "We have noted the judgment and are
monitoring the situation." A parliamentary review of British honours has
already recommended streamlining the system with new titles that have no
reference to Christian saints or symbols. In a similar case last year a
Scottish National Party representative Christine Grahame, a member of
the Scottish Parliament, said the George Medal, the highest civilian
award for bravery, was "clearly very Anglocentric" and unsuitable for
Scots. She suggested replacing it with a nationalist award such as a "St
Andrews Medal".
Google the phrase 'retarded homophobes' and it turns up regularly in gay
rights propaganda. So the use of the insult by the British Association
for Adoption and Fostering was no accident.
We've become used to the tiresome bigotry of homosexual fundamentalists
smearing anyone remotely opposed to even the wilder excesses of the gay
'lifestyle'. But the accusation of mental handicap is relatively recent.
It marks a new low in the nastiness of what was once a perfectly
respectable cause.
Like most things, the homosexual equality movement has been hijacked by
hysterical headcases with ever more extreme demands. You can never make
too many concessions to them. They just keep coming back for more,
hoping to wear down their opponents with a relentless fusillade of vile
abuse.
I get it all the time, even though this column was one of the first in
the popular Press to support civil partnerships and argue in favour of
gay rights, in such fields as employment, housing and pensions.
Many of us who cheerfully sang along with Tom Robinson's Glad To Be Gay,
though, draw the line at adoption by same-sex couples.
That's enough to get us labelled 'retarded homophobes'. Abuse from
hate-mongers such as career homosexual and hereditary Labour lackey Dame
Ben Summerskill is a badge of honour. But what's monstrous is that the
term is being used to insult Christians by an organisation which gets
£6 million a year in public funds.
It shows the ruthless desperation to which these maniacs are prepared to
resort to further their agenda. If any outfit put out an official
document referring to homosexuals in such an offensive manner, the gay
rights lobby would demand that they were prosecuted for 'hate crime'.
It's bad enough that the adoption service has become an instrument of
social engineering, obsessed with furthering the new state religion of
'diversity'. Time and again we read of children being taken away from
their families and handed over to gay couples.
Why the hell are we bankrolling these fanatical cultural fascists? The
next Tory government should immediately stop funding these spiteful gay
rights activists and outlaw adoption by same-sex couples.
And, by the way, it's Mister Retarded Homophobe.
JOB OF THE WEEK:
Sent in by Simon Lorimer: 'Lead Project Worker, Play In Prisons Project,
£20,406 a year.
'The successful candidate will provide maternity leave cover for the
Play In Prisons Project Manager and then work alongside the manager on
her return.'
You couldn't make it up.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1181835/RICHARD-LITTLEJOHN-Im-p
roud-announce-Britain-leads-world-moat-dredging.html
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