The Equality Bill Saga Continues…
Well after the my response from Ms Baird MP, I emailed my MP again who responded promptly restating my two main points and promising to ask for clarification on these. A couple of days ago I got a response and here it is:
Dear Julie,
Regarding [me]
Thank you for your letter of 23rd June to the Vera Baird QC MP on behalf of the constituent Ms Goodwin concerning the Equality Bill. I am replying as the Minister responsible. I am sorry for puting you to the inconvenience of having to write a second letter as our first reply did not fully answer your constituent’s concerns. This was due to an administrative error.
On your constituent’s first point, if a mother was asked to stop feeding her child and leave a cafe, she will know that the law is on her side and this should give her the confidence to challenge the cafe owner by pointing out that he or she is treating her in a discriminatory manner. However, if for any reason she feels unable to do this, she can bring a discrimination claim against the cafe owner before the county court. Information and help on bringing a claim can be obtained from local Citizens Advice Bureaux, local Law Centres or the Equality and Human Rights Commission helpline.
With regard to her second point, the Equality Bill provides protection across specific areas – work, goods, facilities, services, public functions, premises and associations/private clubs. As is the case with discrimination law now, it therefore does not apply to exchanges between individuals in a personal or private capacity such as passers by in the street.
I hope this information is helpful to your constituent
Michael Foster DL MP
Well by omission I surmise that yes, she has to leave the cafe if she is asked, and no, it provides no protection against individuals harassing her. That just isn’t enough. Women and babies need more protection than that.
[Edit - just to clarify, I should have said that she may have the legal right to stay in that cafe, but she has nobody to protect that right at the time. I will be writing to my MP again for further clarification but as I understand it she has no right to call the police to back her up, and what use is the law without that right for an already vulnerable woman. As far as I am concerned, unless the legal system supports this right properly, as long as it is up to her to argue alone and push her case through the legal system, she does have to leave]
Published July 23, 2009 . Filed under: Uncategorized
I don’t see how you’ve picked that up at all from the reply from the Minister! He quite clearly says no, she does not have to leave — asking her to do so is against the law. And if she does feel intimidated and decide to leave she can take legal action afterwards.
I don’t know why you are still digging away at this. People often complain about not getting a straight yes or no answer from politicians, then Vera Baird says “No” quite clearly and you can’t take that as a straight answer.! I don’t think I’ll bother with your forum anymore. I don’t think you are really concerend about the rights of mothers — you are more intersted in politician-baiting. I’m very disappointed.
Marie.
First off, this isn’t a forum – its just my blog!
Secondly, I don’t think you get the point we’re working for here. We’re looking for protection, not just a clarification in the law. Civil law, where a woman has to sue for any breach in the law, is no protection at all. She does not have the right to call the police to uphold that law. Yes, if she argues she is actually in the right, but when faced with someone else who is convinced they are right, how many mothers with babies and small children are actually going to argue the point? In addition this proposed legislation offers no protection from random passers by who
Women need to know that the full force of the law is behind them, as it is in Scotland. It takes so many women a lot of courage to feed in public and telling them that they can sue if someone tries to refuse them service is not really going to make anyone more confident.
We’re not interested in politician baiting, we’re interested in getting the right protection for mothers and babies, not just what we are told is good enough.