The House of Lords continued its examination of the Equality Bill yesterday. Amendments discussed covered clauses 10 to 29. Here is the news page with links.
The Hansard record can be found starting here, or the PDF file is over here.
Two of the amendments I had previously listed as interesting were debated.
Amendment 20 (Baroness Varsi and Baroness Morris) which would remove the word “philosophical” from the definition of “belief”, was debated, follow that from here.
At the end of the evening, Lord MacKay of Clashfern proposed Amendment 57A:
“Conscientious objection
Nothing in this Act shall have the effect of requiring a person (A) to provide a good or service to a person (B) when doing so has the effect of making A complicit with an action to which A has a genuine conscientious objection.”
Read the debate on that from here.
Also, yesterday there was a change in the list of peers sponsoring the amendment to delete Sch 9 Clause 2 Para 8. Baroness Varsi’s name was removed, and was replaced by Baroness Butler-Sloss. Lady Butler-Sloss also added her name to those sponsoring the amendment to delete the word “proportionate” in in paragraphs 5 and 6 of Schedule 9 clause 2.
From the debate, The Bishop of Chichester picks up on Lord Mackay’s point… “…I am grateful that he is pressing the point about the distinction between orientation and practice. It seems to be fundamental. We will not agree about that, but it is one of the underlying questions that has bedevilled this discussion. There is another that the noble Baroness highlighted a moment ago, which we need to take note of before we finish. She repeated several times an expression about the need to respect people’s private beliefs. One reason why I opposed the amendment trying to get rid of… Read more »
I must say, it is rather good not to be living in the jurisdiction of the English Church – under the Bishops of the Church of England. Overseas Provinces have the distinct benefit of not having to be subject to an ‘Upper House’ which has the power to over-rule any legislation which appears in the Parliament of the People. Deo Gratias!
“Baroness Butler-Sloss”
There’ll always be an England. 😉
I hope the conscientous objection amendment gets shot down, killed, voted against. It makes a mockery of the rest of the bill. All someone has to say is that their religion, their ethics, their conscience doesn’t permit them to hire GLBT folks. If the 1964 Civil Rights Act in the USA had such an amendment, businesses would still be saying “Blacks need not apply” or “No women wanted in here”. If you open your business to the public, you are open to all the public. If you desire not to serve all of the public, find yourself other employment or… Read more »
“I suppose you could always be employed by ACNA.” – peterpi, on Friday – I’m not so sure that one would not be jumping out of the frying pan into th fire by suggesting that. I’m sure ACNA is going to have its own ongoing problems about who is, and who is not worthy of being called into the ministry of its multifarious traditions. The only thing that unites them is their homophobia. They are very much divided on the issue of women clergy. One only has to look at their web-sites to see just how divided they are on… Read more »