HUMAN RIGHTS "POLICE" MUST GO
This article appears on the front page of today's Daily Express:
Human Rights "police" must go
Sense at last as money-wasting equality watchdog faces the axe
The watchdog set up to combat
discrimination in the UK constantly talks Britain down and should be scrapped,
a damning new report reveals today.
The Equality and Human Rights
Commission peddles flawed philosophies and costs too much, the independent
think-tank Civitas says.
And if it were disbanded, not
only would taxpayers be saved millions but proper ways could be found to tackle
unfairness.
The scathing report by academic
Jon Gower Davies says the Commission looks at issues the wrong way. It blames
British unfairness for differences in people’s lives that are beyond the
Government’s control and too narrowly focuses on “rights” while ignoring responsibilities.
He also criticises pay and perks
at the controversial organisation, which has been publicly rebuked by the
official spending watchdog over its accounts.
The TaxPayers’ Alliance called on
Home Secretary and Equalities Minister Theresa May last October to disband the
body.
Last night its director, Matthew Sinclair, said: “The EHRC has
mismanaged millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money too many times. It has shown
that it can’t be trusted to use its budget properly and should be wound up.
“There are much better uses for
the millions of pounds it spends every year than this politicised and wasteful
quango.”
Conservative MP Dominic Raab
said: “The EHRC is costly and counter-productive. Its fixation on positive
discrimination and quotas is socially divisive, anti-meritocratic and out of
touch with the aspirations of modern young Britons.”
Fellow Tory MP Priti Patel said:
“I am not surprised by this report as I went through the EHRC annual reports
and the waste is unbelievable. They add no value.”
The watchdog has continually been in the news for its
controversial judgments. In March it was criticised after saying children
should be asked from age 11 if they were gay, with records kept of any who were
“questioning” their sexuality in case they fell victim to discrimination.
Football fans were furious when
the quango backed Bath City club in offering Polish supporters an 80 per cent
discount on match tickets.
It also warned full-body security
scanners at British airports could be illegal and would be impossible to
monitor if there were discrimination in the way passengers were selected for
the checks.
The Coalition has already reduced
funding for the EHRC, from £70 million in 2007 to £55 million in 2010-11 and
plans further cuts to £26 million in 2014-15.
A spokesman for the Government
Equalities Office said it would respond shortly to a consultation it launched
in March on its plans to reform the body, which could lead to it being closed
down. Dr Davies is a former head of Newcastle University’s Religious Studies
department and a former Labour councillor in the city. He sets out detailed
criticisms in his critique, Small Corroding Words: The Slighting of GreatBritain [by the EHRC].
The EHRC started work in 2007,
merging the functions of the previous Equal Opportunities, Disability Rights
and Racial Equality Commissions. Launching the report, a Civitas spokesman
said: “The EHRC contributes very little to meaningful equality in Britain today
and should be abolished.
“Ultimately, abolishing the EHRC
itself would not just be a cost-saving exercise. It may well present an
opportunity to channel resources into addressing the most pertinent issues
holding back equality and fairness.’’
Dr Davies says the Commission’s
goal of equality is impractical and it wrongly seeks to divorce outcomes such
as health limitations and lifestyles. Focusing on the EHRC’s How Fair IsBritain? review he said: “It makes little attempt to establish what, if anything
is responsible for these differences. Instead, when the differences appear to
disadvantage some groups, it is assumed to be the result of Britain’s
unfairness.”
Dr Davies told the Daily Express
that the EHRC never puts the positive side of life in Britain: “Its review is a
series of snivels and complaints. When you come from Pakistan or Bangladesh you
are moving from not very good places to a much better one. Why not say that
loud and clear?”
An EHRC spokeswoman insisted the
review was only intended as a “snapshot” of Britain and had not set out to be
an exhaustive comparison with other countries. Chief executive Mark Hammond
said: “It’s our job to start a debate where we could see better outcomes for
people suffering unfair disadvantages.”
In June the National Audit Office
refused to sign off the body’s 2009-10 accounts in full after controversies
that included spending millions without authorisation.
No comments:
Post a Comment