Lord Tebbit: Would you feel safe flying with a transsexual Muslim airline pilot?
In an article about civil service reform, Lord Tebbit managed to get on to the subject of transgender Muslim flight crew.
Writing for the Telegraph website, the former Conservative cabinet minister and ex-Tory chairman accused successive governments, from Tony Blair to David Cameron, of being preoccupied with political correctness when it came to the appointment of civil servants.
He wrote: “At the heart of the Blair reforms was the utterly insane dictum that ‘the senior ranks of the civil service should be representative of the community it serves’.
“Try putting that into practice elsewhere. Who would feel safer if just before take-off the pilot of the airliner told the passengers that she had been promoted to command because they needed more transsexual Muslim captains to meet the airline’s inclusivity target?
“The senior ranks of the civil service, flight deck crews, surgeons, or any job should be comprised of the best candidates regardless of sexual orientation, gender, ethnic origin or religion.
“I did not support Margaret Thatcher because she was a woman any more than I support Savid Javid or Priti Patel because of their ethnicity. I support them for their qualities as politicians.”
Before going into politics Lord Tebbit was a pilot in the RAF and for British Overseas Airways (which became British Airways in 1974).
However, the MP had faced criticism from within his constituency that he spent little time in the area.
Lord Tebbit was one of the staunchest opponents against the government’s decision to legalise equal marriage during the debates in the House of Lords last year.
