Make room for conscience in Equality Bill, says Lord Mackay

Equality laws shouldn’t force people to provide goods or services in a way that conflicts with their conscience, a former head of the judiciary said yesterday.

Lord Mackay of Clashfern, who was head of the judiciary in England and Wales when he was Lord Chancellor, argued that current laws should be more flexible to deal with differing points of view.

Yesterday in the House of Lords he proposed an amendment to the Equality Bill so that people wouldn’t be forced to act against their sincerely held beliefs.

But the Government opposed the move, arguing that conscience was already sufficiently protected. Lord Mackay disagreed but withdrew his amendment before it could be voted on.

In the debate Lord Mackay said a homosexual printer shouldn’t be expected to print religious material that he disagrees with. Nor, he said, should a Christian printer be expected to print homosexual campaign literature.

• Full story at the Christian Institute.

• Posted in Secularism, Sexuality