now I've heard everything. Can this really be happening? transport minister Norman Baker says it is, so it must be true. Hat-tip Norm (Geras, the clever one).
The transport minister has intervened to stop guide dogs and their blind owners from being ordered off buses because Muslim drivers or passengers consider the animals unclean.
The refusal, for religious reasons, to carry even guide dogs has become so widespread that it was raised in the House of Lords last week by Lord Monson, a crossbench peer.
Last night Norman Baker, the transport minister, signalled to bus companies that a religious objection was not a reason to eject a passenger with a well-behaved dog.
"If dogs are causing a nuisance, a driver has every right to ask the owner to leave," he said. "It is much more questionable to be asked to remove a dog for religious reasons. One person's freedom is someone else's restriction."
The Guide Dogs for the Blind Association said that, although refusing to take a blind person with a dog in a bus or taxi was illegal under disability discrimination law, it received constant complaints from members.
There had been so many reports from blind people with guide dogs who had been thrown off buses or refused a ride by cab drivers that it had held talks with Islamic organisations about the problem.
Don't you just love those LibDems? "questionable", says Normie Baker. Nothing to question. Very simple. If a bus driver refuses to take a guide dog that is a disciplinary offence. If he or she does it again they get sacked. End of.
8 comments:
Agreed. But what if it is a (self-employed) Taxi Driver? I think it is taxi drivers who are the problem, not bus drivers.
the passenger takes their number and complains to the licensing authority. Not ideal, but what else can they do?
Forgive me if I am missing something here, but if the (potential) passenger is blind, might they not have a bit of trouble reading the number and then writing it down?
Might it be a hoax?
Like this one
http://thenewsjunkie.com/2010/07/muslim-uk-bus-drivers-refuse-blind-passengers/
it might be a hoax Adrian, but it was plausible to me. Gus they would ask the driver for his number, he is obliged to give it to them, either verbally or by writing it down. If they didn't get the number they could find out who it was from the firm they booked the cab with. More difficult if it is a hackney hailed on the street of course, but blind people do not often do this.
Sometimes the far-right float these stories to see who bites.I remember years ago a certain muslim councillor,and race-relations guru of sorts,fell for such a hoax.He had heard that a midlands council were introducing seperate toilet facilities for muslim..he wanted to be the first on his block-Reading-it happens to raise the issue..fortunately RBC headed him off at the pass before he could go public with his absurd proposals..
This (alleged) statement by Norman is being widely reported today, but, after looking at various appearances of it, the original source is never identified except by way of attributing it to Norm. Its not on the COI list of press releases from DfT, and I cannot find any mention on the DfT web site...
But look at:
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?p=16974127
"The problem to carry guide dogs on religious grounds has become so widespread that the matter was raised in the House of Lords last week, prompting transport minister Norman Baker to warn that a religious objection was not a reason to eject a passenger with a well-behaved guide dog."
So it ought to be in Hansard for the Lords and, if Norman made his statement in the Commons, in Hansard again.
Yes a lot of this sort of 'hoaxing'[if thats the right word- a hoax is meant to have an element of humour about it,is it not]went on during the seventies.I rember the NF sending letters to pensioners,living alone in council properties,telling them that they were to have an immigrant family,newly arrived in England,billetted on them..they would be paid etc etc,caused a degree of distress...
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