Britain’s equality quango needs to be closed down, according to a national newspaper columnist who has also taken a swipe at a controversial equality law.
Richard Littlejohn criticised the Equality and Human Rights Commission as an “uncomfortable, artificial alliance of competing special interest groups with their own individual axes to grind”.
And he described the Equality Act, which was rushed through by the previous Government, as a “ludicrous piece of legislation”.
Problems
Mr Littlejohn’s comments followed some staff at the equality commission saying they could not be sacked – as it would be a breach of the Equality Act.
It is claimed that funding cuts will lead to virtually all the black and ethnic minority and disabled staff losing their jobs.
Mr Littlejohn said: “This dilemma is the perfect illustration of the problems created by Harriet Harman’s ludicrous piece of legislation, which forces governments to take into account the impact of every single policy decision on so-called vulnerable groups.”
Chop
While Mr Littlejohn said his “old friend Trevor Phillips”, who is in charge of the equality commission, had tried to cut it down to size, the columnist said the quango was “ripe for the chop”.
Last year the equality commission financed the case of a homosexual couple who sued Christian B&B owners Peter and Hazelmary Bull over their policy of restricting double rooms to married couples.