Controversy raged over the refusal of Northumberland
County Council to pay for the transport of 13 year old Mandeep Kaur Ladhar
to St Benet Biscop RC High School in Bedlington. Mandeep’s parents
had sent her to a Roman Catholic school, despite the fact that they are
Sikh, because they felt it would provide a “better and stricter”
education for her. However, non Roman Catholics do not qualify for free
travel to RC schools.
A spokesman for the local authority said: “If the
girl had been an atheist, agnostic, Methodist, or of any other religion,
she would also not have qualified for free transport to what is fundamentally
a school of her parents’ choice.” The Commission for Racial
Equality (CRE) commented: “We would have thought the education authority
would have assessed how the provision of free transport would impact on
racial equality.”
Editor's comment: I
make no comment on the merits of the policy on free transport. I would,
however, draw the reader’s attention to the deliberate attempt by
the CRE to turn a dispute over bureaucracy and religion into one about
race. If Mandeep were to convert to Roman Catholicism she would qualify
for the free transport, but she would still be of the same race. This
sort of mischief making is typical of the malignant goblins at the CRE.
