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UK: Card Factory accused of homophobia for selling offensive 'fag' birthday card
142
London: Gay couple threatened with death in violent late night homophobic assault
141
Government considers watered down same-sex marriage bill to minimise Tory rebellion
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Tory MP Gerald Howarth: 'There are plenty in the aggressive homosexual community who want more than just same-sex marriage'
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France: Far right activist commits suicide in Notre Dame following legalisation of equal marriage
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Norman Tebbit: David Cameron has 'f**** things up' with his equal marriage bill
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US church blames Woolwich suspected terror killing on UK acceptance of gay people
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Tory MP Sir Gerald Howarth defends 'aggressive homosexual community' equal marriage slur
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Sir Gerald Howarth: 'I should have used 'militant' rather than 'aggressive' to describe homosexuals
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David Cameron: Gay teenagers will stand that bit taller following equal marriage vote
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Robert in S. Kensington 742
Midnighter 439
GulliverUK 365
D.McCabe 357
Mark Y 344
Jock S. Trap 320
That There Other David 313
Iris 307
Sasha 294
Wingby 267
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I can’t believe they are even asking this question.
I suppose that’s what happens when we are governed by the daily mail.
No doubt the christofascists will be out full force to get rid of it so they can freely not let us use any business or service they provide.
Can Pink News please supply a link to the website?
Oh you have already.
D’OH
How perverse is it to consider equality legislation as red tape?!
How does scrapping this in any way help SMEs or start-ups that should be the sole focus of cutting administrative red tape in the first place?
No way should this Act be scrapped. It is a vital piece of legislation. We have to try and get as many people to comment there knowing the idiots that come here from certain religions and will use it against us.
Is this normal to set up a website like this? What’s the point of it? surely any changes to something like this would be campaigned for thru mps etc…this seem too important to just have a free for all..
Would anyone even dare to suggest that laws protecting people from discrimination on basis of race or gender should be scrapped? I very much doubt it. Yet once again it seems our equality is up for debate. Disgusting.
get off you high horse, the Equalities act covers race and gender, not just “your” equality!
It actually covers all 9 protected groups: age, disability, religion and belief, gender, sexual orientation, gender changed, marriage/civil partnership, and I can’t remember what the other two are!
Should we have a fair and equal society and have laws to make sure that it is?
Given the prime minster showing what a racist he is today, we can be thankful we do have protection against the likes of him and his coalition of toffs.
Oh good grief. I think you prove his point. Anyone suggesting or speaking about tackling immigration is a racist. It’s absolute rubbish. Fact is immigration needs to be tackled from the disaster Labour left. The Equality Law protect those who stay.
It’s another reason this Act should stay.
I agree immigration is a problem we need to tackle. Its not ‘racist’ since we are also restricting white people, colonials no less..
Camron does it coz anything else they did was a disaster : top up fees, nhs, budget cuts etc, at least imigration is oh so popular among tory grsss roots. mind you scrapping Equality Act is equally popular with them
@Helen Wilson…
….I am surprised that you should call the PM a racist because he wants to limit immigration to what is an already overcrowded country. We already have problems because of unbridled immigration of the last 40 years and with the rise in Facist nationalism , something needs to be done. Do you really think we can absorb the tidal wve of immigrants waiting to invade western Europe since the Arab uprisings. I don’t think so. what would we feed them with and where would we gat jobs for them with the jobless figures alreadyy topping 1 million and our young people in despair on benefits.
By all means Equality Legislation must not be scrapped, or watered down , but buttressed and strengthened with further legislation. The god squad must not be allowed to turn us back to the 1980s. If this happens it will be an indication that “Call me Daves Tories” know that this is a one term government.
gee whats with the paranoia, uk had over milion people on a dole during the good years, people in this country are just lazy, if it wasnt for the cuts to the benefits, non of them would move their backside to go out and do some job, uk always needed imigrants to do the jobs because brits are super lazy
You represent the elites on immigration, which has ignored the mainstream for far too long. Cameron is right to speak up about it. Your opinions encourage extremism.
Regarding the Equality Act, it should be kept the way it is and I am sure this will be the case – get writing people!
It’s morons like you that have got this country into the mess it is today simply because anyone who happens to mention the elephant in the room is immediately branded a racist. The subject needs to be out in the open and properly discussed, instead of constantly skirting around the edges and pretending the problem doesn’t exist.
and morons like you run the country, god help us all
Well your lot had 13 years to get it sorted, and they managed to right royally fcuk it up. People like me couldn’t do any worse.
Well said Helen. Cameron is adopting the rhetoric of the far right… lets blame foreigners for everything. As for the mess Labour allegedly left us in, Labour has over the last 50 years “restricted immigration” (ie non-white immigration) far more than the Tories.
Glad to see the Liebour train is working. I found Cameron’s speech insightful and well balanced today. He supported immigration but pointed out that it was to be controlled so that we didn’t end up supporting thousands of people with nothing to contribute to the nation.
He actually blamed a lot of the problems of today’s society on a welfare system that has created a generation of “won’t work” not on the influx of immigrants.
Labour managed to see the greatest rise in immigration since the post WW2 years during it’s time in power.
Ahhh good old political correctness. Even discuss immigration and you’re branded a racist.
It’s amazing how short some peoples memories are. One of the pre-election debates was entirely about immigration. Politicians of all stripes are always banging on about it. And I certainly don’t recall them being branded racist every time they spoke on the topic. Cameron, on the other hand – well he’s probably not racist himself, but he’s certainly chasing their votes…
Personally, I’d love to have a *real* debate on immigration, I really would. But all I ever get from the anti side is hearsay, half-truths and Daily Mail headlines. Scrape all the B.S. away, and there seems to be nothing left but small-minded prejudice.
Helen, you do seem to enjoy freely throwing around the most grievous allegations.
> Given the prime minster showing what a racist he is today, we can be thankful we do have protection against the likes of him and his coalition of toffs.
So it’s okay to be rude about “toffs” but David Cameron is racist. You are a hypocrite.
The website also asks whether regulations on the management of hazardous waste should be scrapped altogether. I think it’s just a silly mistake giving people the option of saying Equalities regulations should be scrapped entirely, rather the Government seriously considering that possibility.
It’s also a silly mistake to ask people whether to scrap regulations on the management of hazardous waste. I mean, what do the unwashed know? Does the government not have qualified experts who advise them in different areas?
I’d be pretty freaked out if my government asked me what regulations are considered red tape and what not.
@ Fred…
….Scrap regulations on Hazardous Waste….I don’t think so. This is clearly big business attempting to use the big business friendly tories to allow them turn our waterways back into the cesspools they were 20 years or so ago. Not gonna happen fella so forget that little wheeze.
If anything these regulations should also be beefed up and fines doubled or trebled for infractions of the rules.
Actually, yesterday it was announced that £100 million of new money was to be spent on clearing up and improving the waterways to help give wildlife a chance to thrive again. This work is being done with the help of volunteers and will take 5 years.
As for beefing up fines etc thats what the sort of thing the government needs to hear from us. This is all consultation with the public. It’s up to us if we want to be a part of it but it’s not about scrapping things it also about improving things.
My comment appears to have been clear enough. My point was in the same way that regulations on the management of hazardous waste are simply not going to be scrapped in their entirety, Equalities regulations are also not going to be scrapped in their entirety. I see no reason to read anything (other than the fact that, even, governments make silly mistakes) from a website that gives people the option of saying all Equalities regulations should be scrapped.
The first sentence should have read NOT clear enough.
Sounds a little like the Tories are returning to their former selves. It doesn’t ask if section 28 was a good idea does it? Why bother with any legislation, surely it’s all red tape.
The Equality Act 2010 is primary legislation proecting human rights and not a straighforward business regulation.
The Red tape website invites people to comment on the Equality Act 2010 itself and whether it should be scrapped. This should not be permitted.
The Equality Act 2010 is a key piece of anti-discrimination legislation and it is outrageous that this Act is being badged as “red tape” – should we also change business law to legalise slavery, as I’m sure that is a very cost effective solution for future employers!?
The Equalities Act 2010 should simply be removed from the website and the manager responsible repremanded for their major error…
Where is Anonomous when we need them. Bring down this website immediately. It is a disgrace that it was even thought of and those responsible should be charged with anti equality crimes.
does this mean we can scrap the equalities minister at the same time?
Allow me to say a big I told you so to all you idiots on here who thought the tories were committed to lgbt people.
You are idiots.
- Empower homophobic institutions.
- Give control of schooling to churches who hate us.
- Scrap defence of our rights.
I second this comment. I regret voting for LibDems and will be voting Labour next time.
Ed Miliband needs to cut out the white flick on the right side of his hair, or die his hair brown.
Ditto here. I was called all the expletives under the Sun when i railed against the Law and Justice homophobic Tories leading up to the General Election….I was posting under the tag Boston or Patrick OGormley then and the abuse i endured from some of the Tory troll was unbelieveable. They are all strangely quiet, now that the crows hav come home to roost.
Thats actually rubbish because one of the first things both parties said was they would allow people to choose which bits of red tape Labour had introduced that basically went too far, the public wanted to get rid of or modify or update. This is all they are doing. The Equality Act is not being singled out it is questioning all and taking Public advise.
What they are showing is they are willing to listen to the public unlike the last government with ignored more than anything.
I think some are scaremongering, in the hope these Bills are scrapped so they can say I told you so but in reality I very much doubt the Equality Act will be scrapped and I doubt the LGBT will be left unprotected. It’s in neither the Tory nor the Lib Dems interests to scrap this so I certainly don’t feel threatened by it.
Think about it, the Lib Dems wouldn’t allow us to become vunerable, I doubt David Cameron would either and Labour (hopefully) would fight it. Most of the public wouldn’t stand for it.
If I’m wrong I’ll be the first to put my hand up but I doubt this is anything more than what they promised. It doesn’t make sense to scrap it and I certainly ain’t ready to rush in judgement.
Fact is we now have a Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister who openly support Equal marriage and Civil Partnerships, something we wouldn’t have had under Brown. We have movement, slow granted, on Blood donation. Things are happening.
If the election was tomorrow I still would probably vote Tory. I certainly will never vote for Ed Milibore or Ed Balls-Up. I may vote Labour again but they would have to go first.
Do you know what jock, equal marriage is a less important issue than my right to be able to access the public sphere (business/hotels etc) and not turned away because i am gay.
Gay marriage is less important than my right to not be fired because I am gay.
So Camwrong can harp on about gay marriage as much as he wants (not action yet) but even if he did implement it removing the equality act would be far more damaging to lgbt peoples lives.
If you think otherwise I really do not know what to say to you.
Also why on earth would u vote tory?
- shrinking economy.
- disastrous health care reforms.
- terrible education reforms.
- We’re in another war we shouldnt be in.
Come on get past you anti labour bias and try and look at some facts.
How on earth can you describe the equality act as red tape?
It protects human rights which are inalienable. They should never be up for a vote.
Stop being an apologist, if you look at what the tories have done since getting in office it is clear they dont like gay people.
- giving homophobes control of our schools.
- Baroness warsi put in cabinet.
- Now voting on whether gays deserve human rights.
I really cannot believe how brazen the tories are being, or how idiotic members of the lgbt community are.
this act is 1 year old, it defends our rights, yet they are already talking about scrapping it.
listen now all you idiots who voted conservative, They tricked you. They say one thing, and do the opposite.
Christian concern for our nation and the christian institute and the daily mail all attack the equality act, and what a surprise the Tories let our rights come up for a vote.
When this act became law it replaced every law that defends our equality. If you get rid of it no law would exist to defend us, it would be open season on us.
We would effectively be only a little better off than those in Uganda.
Well I know I have added my voice to this consultation to keep the Equality Act.
They are also listing the Libraries and Museums Act – so hooligans as well
So they trying to get rid of laws that are outdated? How about gay men can’t donate blood? I don’t see them questerning that one.
Lib Dems are dead man walking (scrapping EA will be their final nail in the coffin), next election will be Tory vs Labour, make sure that you decide wisely
Why on EARTH is the government even ASKING this question in regard to Equality legislation!
The mere fact that the government has consent to allow this question to be ASKED is FRIGHTENING!
For it means that the government does NOT believe that the Equality Act is important.
This really is frightening.
The name should have come out as:
“Eddy (the real one, from 2007 – 2010)”
but it got cropped by the software.
Will shorten it.
To the accusation that the government is fully prepared to consider scrapping the Equality Act, they might reply that they are asking the UK public how it feels about ALL the legislation that exists.
If that is the case, this is truly extraordinary, for it means we are now living in a time and in a country the government of which has taken the momentous decision to put ALL the law books out on a public stall, so to speak, and to let Joe Public (generally simpleJoe Public) tell the government to ditch and what not.
They are saying, “Everything is up for taking to the tip. You decide. If enough of you band together and say you want us to ditch stuff, yeah, we’ll do it!”
How can we have FAITH and TRUST in our government any more?
What kind of alternative voting system IS THIS?
Has the entire nation received bumpf through the letter-box advising it that it can now choose what laws to throw on the scrapheap? If not, why not?
Im sure they may say this, however unless they for example ask for a public consultation on whether blacks can vote, or women can drive, they are clearly lying as they are singling out lgbt people.
The drive behind it is the same as it has ever been, tory homophobia. As ive said a million times before, politicians exist to get elected above all else, the tories cannot get elected without the daily mail or the telegraph, both homophobic papers, therefore the tories have an inbuilt incentive to be homophobic.
Fact of life, it is incentives that drive human action.
Sound words, Scott. I agree with you.
I found yesterday’s news on this issue profoundly depressing. A good night’s sleep has helped me recover, but the threat is real and it remains.
It has to be said, Labour were introducing a new bill at over one a day for most of their tenure. We are swamped with unnecessary red tape and legislation, and I think the government has the right idea, the whole thing needs heavily pruning back, so the important essentials remain, but all the other restrictive guff is removed.
at least labour was introducing something, tories cant even do that, they need people to tell them which laws dont work, i thought that was their job, whats the point of tories if they dont know how to run the country
Oh how about the fact that they’re asking the electorate what we want. Including people in politics and the making of laws is one of the many things the last government was consistently criticised for NOT doing.
“Oh how about the fact that they’re asking the electorate what we want”
Funny how the tories didnt ask us about nhs reforms.
And anyway i thought we had elections for that purpose
rights are not dependent on popularity. Thats why they shouldnt be voted on.
You really are a fcukwit of the highest order.
Labour could rush through legislation whether anybody liked it or not, and in some case, like the foxhunting bill, did it even when they were refused by the Lords by invoking the parliament act. Any party that can generate 4,829 laws in 13 years has got a bloody screw loose.
The point is, nobody can foresee the full ramifications of a bill until it is actually in place and operational. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, but you can’t seriously expect a government to monitor every process and run assessments on it’s validity and results. It is only the people on the ground that it directly affects that can tell you that. The government administers the country, it cannot watch over everyone, and frankly, nobody would want them to either.
Labour introduced some idiotic legislation so that child could no long be children because of health and safety, responsible people could have fun because of health and safety. People could sue each other for the stupidest of thing. Labour have created a horrible selfish society. So it is right that we were promised and have been given the opportunity to advise on legistlation.
I am against the Equality Act being removed or altered and have added my voice to say so.
We seem to be playing the hard done by act, fearing the worst, when they are just doing what they promised. They are hardly likely to remove the Equality Act. The coalition would fall apart for a start because the Lib Dems would not support it.
Stop the scaremonger, all legislation is up for people to comment on, we are not being singled out.
Correction
Children could no longer be children
responsible people could have fun
I agree with what you are saying, but have you actually read the Equality Act? I have to say I haven’t, but I can imagine it is a rambling pile of badly thought through initiatives.
I think what they are saying is scrapping it and replacing it with the spirit of what the Equality Act is trying to do. Essentially just a re-write without all the ifs / buts / and clauses. I have been told it is riddled with loopholes and was poorly written up and rushed through, like so many Labour bills. I think a lot of people are getting the wrong end of the stick here.
Just another nail in the coffin that you both have been denying for so long…
You make a good point Spanner.
I have studied it is it a good piece of legislation but in part it is poorly written. Mainly because it was rushed through because of the pending General Election. Whats written is good but it needs more detail more thought.
why is it OK to be rude to anyone you don’t like spanner? I’m not going to sink to our level and be rude to you, though I know it will upset you. I don’t want the lowest common denominator.
Who needs The Equality Act 2010 when without it you could still have anti-gay discrimination in the provision of goods and services and in the worlplace?
Acts don’t stop people doing anything.
They are merely rules. You break them and suffer the consequences.
Might as well get rid of it. Not like anyone takes any notice of our equal rights is it?
Only today we see couple forced out of a pub for kissing.
The same equality that gives up 10 year abstinence to donate blood. Same equality that gives a consultation if we should be GIVEN same marriage rights as others.
Equalit is a joke in this country :(
There’s no point having it if not enforced like it should be.
They were turned out for not doing what the landlord asked them to do.
That is the landlord’s prerogative. Stop reading homophobia into things when there isn’t any.
You appear to have selective blindness, Spanner.
A landlord or landlord’s deputy turned people away for behaviour exhibited by homosexuals and which was and is no different from behaviour exhibited by heterosexuals.
Yet, you, with your selective blindness, have with regard to this written “Stop reading homophobia”.
Homophobia it is. Pure and simple.
Unless you are a profound bigot, that is.
Who said they would not have done the same to heterosexuals?
it is prejudice what happened. do we have equality or not? NO. legislation not being enforced
Relax. Even if it is scrapped an identical law (or bits and pieces of identical law) will have to replace it. Equality Act 2010 simply brings UK law into line with EU directives on equality. We would have to leave the EU first, and that is NOT going to happen.
Don’t hold your breath on that one. I for one would get out of the EU in a heartbeat, and I’m not alone in that sentiment.
There’s a place you can get out of the EU in a heartbeat. It’s called Heathrow. It’s that simple.
No, this is MY country, and I for one was not even asked to join the EU, whilst New Liebour slipped it it in under the radar by illegally signing the Lisbon Treaty without any consultation after all parties had promised a referendum in their manifestos, and all of them backed out afterwards.
Why should we have to pay £9bn a year to a bunch of bureaucrats that tell us how to run our own bloody country?
Darling, do you miss the British Empire? Now we’re living in the European Empire. There’s no difference. Wake up.
Now we’re living in the European Empire
Oh the irony.
Both Switzerland and Norway (if not better) do perfectly well just being trading partners to Europe not as a part of the state.
Last time I checked there were daily flights to Norway and Swtzerland..
Last time I checked there were daily flights to Norway and Swtzerland.
Well why don’t you take all your leftie pals and fcuk off over there then? I for one am proud of my country and don’t consider “patriotic” to be a dirty word.
The nationalist rhetoric wouldn’t seem out of place in N*A*Z*I Germany. Mind you at that time some gay peeps even joined the SS. I can imagine them frothing at the mouth when mentioning the “lefties”. That’s so predictable.
Your family tree could provide you with useful insights on where things went “wrong”.
Your family tree could be calculated from a smear in a Petri dish.
You may just as well invite all your friends to join you on your way out.
I would leave Europe but for the fact that lots of the people in my country are so bad we need to be in europe to get passable human rights. And they are nothing more than passable.
This is just beurocrats trolling for homophobia and racism. If enough people take the bait, then they can claim their just responding to “democratic opinion”. Since when is minority rights supposed to up for a vote by the majority?
As a Public sector worker I am sickened that they have been allowed to do this website. Its an obscene waste of money and the questions should have been asked internally. Its like Apple saying the ipad doesn’t work anyone got any suggestions! I am not too worried as due to the CSR all those manning the site will be redundant before data is collected
Er.. The iPad doesn’t work. LOL.
What a totally pointless excercise from the govt. Whose going to read all those comments, the whole thing is nothing more than ro incite outrage. Such a general, wide question on a huge bloody big act. What exactly in the act is red tape? Can’t they be a little bit more specific. If this thing cost money to set up and analyse then they’re as wasteful of tax people’s money as any other party. Is equality so petty , what a truly pathetic way of getting public opinion on the equlaities act..
I guess we’ve just been used to have a government for 13 years that doesn’t listen to voters and tell us what to do rather than listening to advice.
There are some things in the equality act which I think are red tape and are fairly difficult to administer especially for one man bands but having the first line say should the equalities act be scrapped is provocative…couldn’t they have picked out bits they were trying to target or bits they had the most complaints about…some things in the equalities act are non negotiable aren’t they? you can’t scrap it! My instant reaction is to rebel againt the whole process where in fact there are probably bits in it that are red tape…..The last govt had lots of expensive quangos, consultation agencies etc that were a waste of space but I’m not sure having hundreds of online comments on a govt website on a question like should the equalities act be scrapped is useful or value for money..
Yep, I agree with that.
it should be scrapped when equality has been achieved and not before
I bet the christianfascists and other bigots would be happy if it goes
Simple answer, Yes.
There was a manifesto commitment not to do this, remember? Shows how honest they are, and how much they can be trusted!
This will cost money. Money to pay for lawyers and courts, money to pay counselling and treatment, and all kinds of other costs. So it isn’t about costs is it, in reality it’s about allowing prejudice to happen because THEY WANY TO
You know that depending on the way a question is asked you get completely different results,
Yes, scrap it, and scrap it now! Otherwise we will get the fruit loop militant brigade continuing to bait guest house owners and pub landlords to see how far they can push the boundaries of what is socially acceptable. If it isn’t scrapped quickly then before long we will have radical queers fisting each other on the Chanel counter at Selfridges and screaming blue murder and calling the police when the sales, um, person, dares suggest they don latex gloves. Not to mention the sheer waste of police time these PC nutters burn up with their “poor me, pity me” claptrap. Bring it on!!
No surprise there then. Whats up everyone saw through you pretending to be Gay ploy. Having a tantrum coz no-one supports your bigotted Christian values? Tough!
Laughable.
It should!
Equality is nonsense. Period!
Yeah, you’re right. We should put you down, as you are clearly less then equal to us, you sand munching freak.
Here’s the link for those unable to find it: http://www.redtapechallenge.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/equalities/