Silly Little Country

It Is Much More Questionable

Norm a) makes me feel a bit better about the UK and b) hits the key point.
He reports on the ongoing outrage in the UK, that Muslim bus drivers deny entry to the bus to blind people with dogs, because they (the drivers) have the idiotic stupid Muslim notion that dogs are in some way 'impure'.
It is encouraging that the UK minister of transport is cracking down on this utterly sick behavior of the drivers.
As Norm points out, it is less to be praised that the minister in question describes the behavior as 'much more questionable' (a lovely relativization). As Norm says:

In fact, pitching a blind person off the bus because his or her guide dog is impure according to one's own belief sytem is bloody outrageous. It should be a disciplinary offence in the second instance and a sacking offence thereafter. For it is a requisitioning of public space, or at any rate space public to the extent of being covered by disability law, to impose a restriction on others who do not share the beliefs in question - even though the activity thereby restricted is not demonstrably harmful to anyone and is demonstrably helpful to someone.

Every one of the drivers is manifestly unfit to be a bus driver (heaven knows what they are fit for!). The first incident should have been a firing offence, though I suspect union rules protect some pretty outrageous behavior with a minefield of grievance procedures.
Still, overall, this is somewhat encouraging.
In Canada, on the other hand, the lunacy is increasing, it seems. (Add to that the woman in Calgary who got probation for strangling her daughter to death.)
We have a pretty good country, and seem to be admitting people to it who are simply not fit to live here. We still have time to explain the rules to the newcomers if we actually believe in the rules.

posted by Alan Adamson @ 11:16 AM