Saturday 31st July 1999
COMMENT

Minority rights, and the threat to freedom

FOUR stories this week speak volumes about the direction in which our country is going.

First, the Church of England Children’s Society lifted its ban on gay and lesbian adoption.  Then, the Appeal Court gave transsexuals the right to sex change operations on the NHS.

It was revealed that a father had been arrested after his 15-year-old daughter had complained about his attempt to stop her going off to what he feared was a night of drug-taking and drink.  And a court ruled that illegal immigrants should not be prosecuted for travelling on false documents.

To those of a politically correct tendency, this must have seemed a magnificent week for the rights of minority groups.  What is also true is that by the same token, it has been a terrible week for the rights of the majority.

Consider.  Married heterosexual couples, whose efforts to adopt are already hindered by those more concerned with ideology than with the well-being of children in need of love and security, now find their chances of success reduced even further.

Agencies supposed to hold the interests of children paramount are clearly prepared to put them second to the selfish interests of gays and lesbians, who by their own free choice, have rejected the biological route to parenthood.

Meanwhile, many of the 1,092,600 people waiting months for hospital surgery will have to wait longer now that they are to be joined in the queue by those given the right to scarce NHS resources, not for any life-threatening illness, but for a lifestyle choice.

Doubtless the thinking behind this is the same as that which now means that more is spent per capita for research on the largely self-inflicted disease of Aids than for cancer research.

Now consider the treatment accorded the father, a council leader, who sought to protect his daughter.  The police chose to persecute a responsible parent rather than investigate the antisocial forces that were leading a youngster astray.

The social workers involved revealed the contempt for the middle class family unit that marks so much of their profession.  By championing the 15-year-old girl’s rights, they once again undermined parental authority.

Meanwhile, the courts’ relentless thwarting of the Home Secretary’s attempts to stem the flood of bogus refugees blithely ignores the fact that Mr Straw is responding to the wishes of the vast majority of voters - not to mention the taxpayers picking up the £600m a year bill for asylum seekers.

But the list does not end here.  In politically correct Britain, our burgeoning compensation culture regularly produces judgments that put the interests of the I few before those of the many.

Take the recent case of Mrs Beverley Lancaster who won £67,000 from her employers, Birmingham Council, because of stress.  Her union backers exultantly warn that other employers are in the firing line.

So they are.  And to avoid being hauled into court they will ensure that other members of their staffs work extra hard to compensate for those who say they can’t cope.

What all these stories have in common is that an ever increasing number of minority groups are being given rights that subvert traditional values.  The problem with this is that one by one the rights of minorities are beginning to cancel out the rights of the majority.

Their freedoms curtail the freedom of us all.

Copyright © 1999, Daily Mail