Clause 35 - General
Equality Bill [Lords]
2:30 pm
Hywel Williams (Spokesperson (Disability; Health; Social Security; Work and Pensions); Caernarfon, Plaid Cymru)
I thank the hon. Lady for her support.
There have been problem cases that have brought the law into disrepute because it is unclear. The area has been brought into further disrepute by the many complaints brought against such people as A.A. Gill, Jeremy Clarkson, most infamously Anne Robinson and most recently the Prime Minister. Those cases were not pursued, but there is controversy and we need some reassurance.
There has also been controversy about discrimination involving language that defines national origin, which itself defines race. The outcome of cases in that field has been less than satisfactory. I refer the Minister to the first and most prominent such case, that of Jones andDoyle v. Gwynedd county council. Jones and Doyle alleged discrimination because they were not employed because they could not speak Welsh. As it happens, the judgment by Kilner Brown was that there was no discrimination. However, there have been further cases, and Kilner Brown himself said that language could not be used to define national identity, which could not then be a case for racial discrimination because it was clearly ludicrous to allege that, for example, Mrs. Hughes and Mrs. Jones having tea together in Bangor were from different racial groups merely because one spoke Welsh and the other did not.
Those are the sorts of complications that have arisen. It is a slippery matter, and I merely seek the Minister’s assurance that the matter has been thought through.