Dear Baroness Warsi,
I don’t think anyone is kidding themselves about the Conservatives staying quiet on some of the major issues, such as immigration, taxation and the EU. However, there is no need to start digging holes for the party with two years until the election. Your decision to concentrate on small but significant community issues is no bad thing, and criminalising forced marriages is a step in the right direction.
It horrifies me that the worst punishment for forced marriage at present is a civil law case. Young girls and boys from the UK are being taken abroad in their hundreds, possibly thousands, and forced to marry against their will. Your belief that children should be able to put their faith in their parents when organising an arranged marriage seems sensible enough, but it is clear that the system is broken. The four measures that you advocate (increasing the minimum age for any spouse coming to Britain and their British partner to 21, interviewing the bride and groom, demanding that a foreign spouse can speak English, and making spouses register their intention to marry abroad before leaving the country) will offend no-one but protect many individuals from parental threats and abuse.
It’s always nice to hear politicians talking sense, and I hope that your contribution to the party continues in a similar vein for many years to come. Your openness and experience in community and minority issues is a breath of fresh air.
Yours sincerely,
A.Tory
4 responses so far ↓
asquith // February 21, 2008 at 11:17 am
I agree completely. I’m sick and tired of various “cultures” being treated with kid gloves. To be honest with you, I have nothing but contempt for those who are so primitive, weak-minded and ill at ease with the modern world that they have to behave in this way.
I wish the opposition parties (especially the LibDems) would campaign on an explicit platform of secularism. Against state funding of faith schools, against appeasement of reactionary, bigoted, self-appointed “community elders”, and for the freedom of those unfortunate women and homosexuals the Rowan Williamses and George Galloways of this world would sacrifice to their radical conscience. For too long these savages have had the government’s ear.
Letters From A Tory // February 21, 2008 at 12:03 pm
Personally, I find it shocking that all the main parties seem to support state funding for faith schools, so I’m right there with you.
asquith // February 21, 2008 at 12:08 pm
Though I suspect that there are few, if any, votes to be gained from explicit secularism.
Candid // February 21, 2008 at 3:09 pm
I have never been a strong believer in belief systems and find faith schools, quite frankly ridiculous. Many of my friends were ‘educated’ at catholic schools and what did they learn in RE - just catholicism. this does not broaden the mind or encourage tolerance. And from recent reports muslim schools are now teaching extremist views. So mush for an integrated society.
Religion is simply a viewpoint, organised or personal they should be considered the same. So I would like to set up a vegetarian school and get government funding.
I must admit that my atheist views lie more towards the Dawkins’ end of things but I just don’t see anything positive coming out of any religion these days. And I’m glad to see Baroness Warsi standing against forced marriages and saying “No, its against the law and morally wrong”
Why this has not been done sooner is inexplicable to many rational people. But it is time we stop pussyfooting around people who hide behind the ridiculously impenetrable walls of religion.
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