The Government is currently reviewing and trying another way to make legislation more effective. But we can't fully anticipate how well the changes will work, we can only do our best with what we do know and understand. We've looked at where things are not working at the moment and maybe we can improve the legislation to catch some loopholes.
Fascists are getting cleverer in many ways. They know that if they use certain words they will get labelled as racist etc. This is the exact threat from the far-right now - they've suited themselves up to look presentable. They have distanced themselves from the thuggery skinheads violence and wrap up their agenda in apparently reasonable points of view, that are no longer overt with racial hatred, but it is implicit in the way they talk about issues.
As for holocaust deniers - there is no reasonable objective ground for historical doubt on that one - and the history of Europe is obviously extremely sensitive on this subject. The drip drip drip effect of holocaust deniers, of fascists spreading prejudice about gypsies or arabs or other groups is immensely dangerous because it encourages a slow but sure shift in attitudes. It perpetuates myths that people hear so often they utterly believe it is truth even without any evidence. It is this process that has seen far right gains across Europe.
Let's say that as a group (X) statistically they are more likely to be involved in crime or to be unreliable - there are as you point out wider factors that cause this that need to be tackled - but let's say you have a middle class and well educated person from group (X) with no personal history of crime etc. They have their name on the top of an application form that goes straight into the bin without being looked at. Again and again.
It's all very well to say what about the managers, but what about these people who are discriminated against directly because they come from or are perceived to come from group (X)? This keeps on putting barriers in the way of gaining meaningful employment or being treated fairly in schools, or being given access to healthcare. So it continues to reinforce the situation these people find themselves in and continues to block opportunities for individuals to make their lives better, and then the cycle continues.
You've pointed out elsewhere that the problem is on both sides and that is true, but one side actually has more power than the other and this fuels the inequality. It is so hugely complex and so much discrimination is not overt which makes it much harder to identify and then to tackle. Ad astra per aspera
Exactly, and it's difficult to prosecute (and prove) the implicit without making a process of intention (or building conspiration theory cases).
I'm quite curious about equal-pay legislation. I wonder how it was taylored, to allow women the right remuneration for their work, competence and responsibility, all in the business and market context, while not falling into egalitarianism and making men feel discriminated.
As to managers, my point was that discrimination is not always a voluntary, malicious act of pure ill will. There are the intolerant, and those worried about the business, I wonder how the right provisions can be made to distinguish the bad sheep from the rest (unless we assume all managers are intolerant). So, with the best intentions, we'll just cut the gordian knot with a progressive activist law - except that laws are supposed to be precise, impartial and fair, not activist, educational, or cultural. One more example about gender quota in France: parties being heavily fined if not presenting enough women candidates, before the last elections they were making near desperate attempts to fill in the empty cases. Now I don't say that women don't feel attracted to politics (although it doesn't sound completely ansurd - men too begin to look quite discriminated in fields like teaching, medicine, or law, btw). But in that particular case, all pretention of exigence has been abandoned, because the fine is something very real and quite painful. Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last! (Martin Luther King)
The equal pay legislation doesn't force employers to do much - it provides a route to making a claim if a person is not being paid fairly and it can be shown to be a gender pay gap. Equal Pay Act applies only to gender and not disability, race etc even though pay gaps exist there too.
It also doesn't force employers to do equal pay audits. It is supposed to encourage employers to pay fairly because the sanctions for losing a case are high but in practice we haven't seen much improvement. Ad astra per aspera
