The Equality Bill is currently before the House of Lords. This bill seeks to introduce a Commission for Equality and Human Rights. Glancing through it today, I've found a couple of interesting bits:
Section 3b says "there is respect for the dignity and worth of each individual"
In the eyes of the law and the government, English people are inferior to the rest of the UK. Our country doesn't legally exist and we have no direct political representation. We are governed by Minority Rule with a government we didn't elect and have English-only laws imposed on us by politicians that are not answerable to the people of England. Does this respect the dignity and worth of English people? I think not.
Section 7.1 says "The Commission shall not take human rights action in relation to a matter if the Scottish Parliament has legislative competence to enable a body to take action of that kind in relation to that matter"
Section 8.1 says
(a) promote understanding of the importance of equality and diversity,
(b) encourage good practice in relation to equality and diversity,
(c) promote equality of opportunity,
(d) promote awareness and understanding of rights under the equality enactments,
(e) enforce the equality enactments,
(f) work towards the elimination of unlawful discrimination, and
(g) work towards the elimination of unlawful harassment.
It will be interesting to see how they will go about promoting equality in the UK when England is unequal to the rest of the country. It will also be interesting to see if they declare the discrimination against England unlawful.
Section 8.2 says "“equality” means equality between individuals"
Am I, as an Englishman, equal to a Scot or a Welshman? Not in this country I'm not.
Section 11 says
(a) promote understanding of the importance of good relations—
(i) between different communities, and
(ii) between communities and others,
(b) encourage good practice in relation to relations—
(i) between different communities, and
(ii) between communities and others,
(c) work towards the elimination of prejudice against, hatred of and hostility towards communities, and
(d) work towards the elimination of the involuntary isolation of communities.
Good relations between our Scottish and Welsh overlords and their English underlings?
The full text of the bill can be found here.