Equality Bill

I support the amendment of the noble Lord, Lord Lester—I think. It was interesting listening to the first part of the most reverend Primate the Archbishop of York’s comments, and the chilling vision of what might happen in a local authority. Suddenly, a vision of the Jedi versus the Thetans flashed before me: chilling indeed. Seriously, there is a whole debate about the issue of identities, which is not about identity being physically fixed and absolutely straight down the line. Identity is much more fluid and subject to change, particularly in a globalised world with globalised cultures, but I do not want to get into that. I understand what the Government are trying to do by including the phrase "lack of belief", but it makes it slightly unwieldy. I speak as a humanist and somebody who feels it is important to put down a marker for people who do not have a particular religious affiliation. This is a very difficult juggling act. We are not only trying to bring together all those different pieces of legislation, but to bring all those different identities together. As we have said before, you cannot treat all those different aspects of identity the same: that is not what we mean by being equal. This is why I support the amendment of the noble Lord, Lord Lester. The insertion of "religion" clouds the issues in an ineffective way.