Equality and Diversity Laws, should these be scrapped??

Let's just clarify the issue. She is not proposing the scrapping of E and D laws but of the rules that require public bodies to consider promoting equality in their decisions.

This sounds a lot like the anti-DEI push in the US.

FWIW, the anti-DEI push here has led the Trump administration to investigate a school district for discrimination against white people.

www.denver7.com/news/investigations/u-s-department-of-education-investigating-cherry-creek-schools-for-racially-discriminatory-programming

I hope getting rid of it works out better for you all then it did for us.

Yes, as part of the Doge waste reducing cuts, they got rid of the department looking out for the spread of those flesh eating worms.
An outbreak has occurred, and now Canada is boycotting the purchase of Texan beef.
Not the same as DEI cuts, I do understand, but from the same negative philosophy.

Just in case people don't understand your reference to flesh eating worms

www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c936r25grrlo

Thanks MaizieD

All people should be treated fairly, not one section get preferential treatment over another. Then Martin Luther’s dream will become reality where it matters not what the colour of your skin is but what you are inside. EDI doesn’t achieve that and imo makes for more divisiveness plus costing a fortune which could be better spent elsewhere.

E&D (in my opinion) only becomes divisive when not used or applied correctly.

It’s not just about skin colour it’s about levelling the playing field for a whole host of minorities, not just ethnicity.

Positive discrimination has utterly backfired, but that doesn’t mean prejudice and discrimination doesn’t still exist in many areas.

You have to treat people as individuals, that's all.
It shouldn't mean preferential treatmenr, in any way, shape or form.

One example is…. One of my family needs assistance when travelling by train, to get on and off. This right to assistance is enshrined in Equality law. It is bad enough now, the haphazard nature of this help, imagine if there wasn’t a law to make train companies offer it and disabled travellers had to rely on train staff just using common sense!

Replying to MissAdventure…..
. This is ‘preferential treatment’ as not everybody needs assistance to get on and off a train. Are you saying that this should not be allowed?

No, thee exact opposite.

Ensuring every single person has access to public transport is as it shouldd be.
Whether by using ramps, wheeling their chair at certain points, using a hoist, lift, or whatever it takes, is as it should be.

Its public transport, for all members of the public.

MissAdventure

Ensuring every single person has access to public transport is as it shouldd be.
Whether by using ramps, wheeling their chair at certain points, using a hoist, lift, or whatever it takes, is as it should be.

Its public transport, for all members of the public.

But public authorities wouldn't need to consider that kind of equality of access, if Mrs Badenoch had her way.

I don't think she's in the running to have her way, though.
Regardless of her stance, mine will remain the same.

Discrimination and equality has gone mad there is only one group that is not vulnerable, white males, assuming they are not gay, disabled or some other disadvantage.
It doesn't affect me Im old and vulnerable now, so enjoying the advantages, that women, migrants, ethnic this or that and all the other groups have been getting.

It shouldn't be a "scrap them or not" issue.

To me it's an issue of enabling all to be able to work, travel, live without feat of harm. To level the playing field when before there was advantage for male, white, able bodied, married or not, having children or not being a carer or not. To take any needful steps to level that paying field

and to maintain that level playing field, because although in some cases one might say awareness has been raised and the field levelled, its my opinion in many areas that it is constantly in danger of being eroded, and therefore without being OTT, quietly and firmly maintaining boundaries.

so, for example: the travel assistance one if you have a rail disability pass, and making sure your local buses are as accessible as possible, takes continual oversight:

for a person of limited or no sight, overseeing locally that facilities needed for those people to work remain available,

that women can have children and don't lose their jobs: that there is adequate protection for women and any other vulnerable people in the workplace against abuse:

that work is still done in higher education to take in students with great potential but lesser qualifications as opposed to someone privately educated:

to check that discrimination is not still taking place in terms of the world of work and institutions as regards ethnicity (as regards this, so much has been done, but make no mistake, it still happens).

No going over the top: reasonable, steady approach.

David I do know white males who grumble as their expectations of getting this or that position in society are threatened by women in particular: misogyny does still exist, ad does take this form.

(You only need to talk as I do to some young women in sectors of work still dominated by men that not only discrimination but also mocking and bullying still does take place).

Remember the report on attitudes as regards race and gender in the Fire Service not too long ago? Quite shocking. There is very much still work to be done

In the United States, white women have benefitted the most from DEI policies.

www.cnn.com/2025/02/08/us/dei-programs-diversity-list

It is beneficial to be cautious of who exactly is affected by removal of certain policies.

Yes. You said this so much more eloquently than I, but this is what I mean.

David49

Discrimination and equality has gone mad there is only one group that is not vulnerable, white males, assuming they are not gay, disabled or some other disadvantage.
It doesn't affect me Im old and vulnerable now, so enjoying the advantages, that women, migrants, ethnic this or that and all the other groups have been getting.

In my opinion, that's a gross exaggeration.

Common sense should rule but there’s no need to throw the baby out with the bathwater as regards equality, if the rules were that everyone would be judged the same when it comes to crime/ jobs that would be good.But we do need laws against discrimination so that transport and employment protects those with visible and invisible problems.

Equality and equity are often very different things needing different approaches. One size definitely doesn't fit all!
If only there was a more common sense approach in all areas rather than dogma.

Rosie51

Equality and equity are often very different things needing different approaches. One size definitely doesn't fit all!
If only there was a more common sense approach in all areas rather than dogma.

That is exactly what the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED), which Badenoch wants to scrap, is designed to do. It obliges public bodies to consider and reflect on their policies and practices in relation to equality and to come up with "common sense" solutions. She is not calling for the Equality Act itself to be abolished.

twaddle

David49

Discrimination and equality has gone mad there is only one group that is not vulnerable, white males, assuming they are not gay, disabled or some other disadvantage.
It doesn't affect me Im old and vulnerable now, so enjoying the advantages, that women, migrants, ethnic this or that and all the other groups have been getting.

In my opinion, that's a gross exaggeration.

White males are the largest group voting for Reform, not just high earners, working class too, they are very dissatisfied, this spills over into the riots we see in Southampton and Belfast. They are fed up with discrimination against them in many many ways, not least by women taking many of the jobs.