Identity politics is dividing Britons, warns equality commission chief

May 26, 2019 by

by Jamie Doward and Heidi Boahen, Observer:

David Isaac says people’s growing tendency to define themselves by faith, gender or race is diminishing empathy.

The increasing tendency for people to define themselves by their faith, gender, sexuality or race is undermining empathy among Britons, says the chair of the country’s equality watchdog.

David Isaac, chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, told the Observer that identity politics had been hugely important in advancing the civil rights of many groups. But he warned of a danger that “individual interests” were narrowing people’s views and diminishing their connection to wider society.

Speaking amid an intensifying row in Birmingham, where a group of predominantly Muslim parents have staged protests outside schools accused of promoting same-sex relationships, he suggested the commission would be prepared to use its legal powers to protect the teaching of LGBT issues in the face of opposition from faith groups. “We are a strategic regulator,” Isaac said. “We can’t support absolutely everybody, but we will take cases where we thinks it moves the law forward to protect human rights.”

Recently the commission has become more vigorous in using its legal powers against groups it believes threaten equality.

“We are about to make a decision whether to investigate antisemitism in the Labour party, and that’s a good example of where, without fear or favour, we are saying in relation to political parties, whether it is Islamophobia in the Tory party or whatever, that if we find unlawful acts we are prepared to use our powers to do something about it,” Isaac said.

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