Tired of the bigots, tired of the anti-bigots, my moral certitude faltered

Avudale

It's obviously disgraceful to deny a gay person something merely because they are gay. The immutability of one's sexuality, much like the ineradicability of one's skin colour, is not grounds for denial of service.

Purely discretionary actions such as obtaining the services of a prostitute or barbecuing atop a hotelier's bed may be subject to sanctions, but the innate qualities of human beings such as sexuality, ethnicity or gender are sacrosanct and not to be punished in an enlightened society.

djw2009

Freedom of association means that service providers are entitled to deny their services on any grounds whatsoever. In a free society, they would be permitted to deny black people, or white people or short people or tall people or the ginger-haired or Jews or Gentiles their services. Quite simply a contract does not exist where there is no willing seller. This whole agenda exists because the politicians are trying to cange society, and therefore forcing everyone to comply with it. Apparently, there cannot be even one company in the whole of Britain that operates differently. This is actually totalitarianism - Hitler's "gleischhaltung" or "alignment" policy insisted that every business and social organisation had to implement the Nazi Party's ideology, and our elite are imposing a similar "alignment". Leave it to the free market, and you would find that most hoteliers couldn't care less what happened in their bedrooms (as long as the furniture is not broken). The whole approach of enforced cultural change is wrong. Matthew Parris' confusion results from the fact that he does approve of enforced multiculturalism - he believes the state should enforce its views on race relations - and having sold the pass on "freedom of association" when it comes to customers who are black, he was logically pulled towards the same result for homosexual customers, although he had a shred of decency to notice the illiberalism of forcing a view of such a matter on a B&B.

Avudale

djw2009, you seem to misunderstand the concept of "freedom of association". Freedom to associate does not mean freedom to deny others the ability to associate!

In your version of a "free society", anyone would be allowed to murder whomsoever they desire because, hey, denying your freedom to murder is a Nazi policy of repression designed to change society through forced compliance.

You care not for the victims of abuse, merely concerning yourself with the imaginary "rights" of the abuser to insult, degrade, deny or discriminate a people of his choosing, without repurcussion and with society's approval.

You are the actual totalitarian: advocating the delegitimisation of certain groups of people based on inheritable human conditions and seeking the creation or maintenance of apartheid ideologies. In your "free society", presumably, coloured people would be at the bottom strung, forced to accept their fate as meted out by Hetero White Man, closely followed by Jews, women, and white gay men. All are subject to the natural order of Hetero White Man at the top, suppressing and oppressing those slightly different to himrself.

In your world, why should hoteliers have cause for complaint at the destruction of their furniture? Surely Freedom Of Association means the freedom to destroy others' property!

The arrogance of stating you wish minorities to be discriminated against while decrying any denunciation of such wickedness as "illiberal" is hypocritical gobbledegook worthy of the worst ideologies in history.

You are free to believe whatever you desire. You can think blacks are scum or gays are sinning sodomites. If, however, you choose to engage in a public business, you have to abide by certain regulations. That includes safety regulations concering the construction materials of a place of business, adequate fire escape routes, compulsory liability insurance, and, yes, the requirement to not discriminate against the public.

I suggest you tear up your driving licence, refuse to renew your insurance, and mow down as many "undesirables" as you can. Otherwise we'd be living in a Nazi state.

djw2009

Avudale, I can't enter a discussion with a person of low IQ, which I have determined you to be. Goodbye.

DavidLondon

Hooray for Matthew Parris and his eminently reasonable and judicious article.

Avudale

Touché, djw2009, you really licked the argument there.

I bow to your supreme intellectual prowess and acknowledge my inferiority, you old bigot you!

Letemdangle

It's amazing the more people accept homosexuality the more gay people understand straight people. Great column!