Lots of interesting news last week – introduction of fully flexible parental leave from 2015, Britain condemned for ‘mad house care’ of schizophrenia patients, a disabled crossbench peer becomes first to speak with the aid of a PA in the House of Lords, man demoted for Facebook comment on gay marriage wins breach of contract action, and the consequences of having a foreign name in multicultural Britain.
In a speech on 13 November, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg announced a range of new family-friendly policies to help working families. Plans include introduction of fully flexible system of parental leave from 2015 for better sharing of child care between the parents. At the moment, new mothers can take a maximum of 52 weeks of leave after the birth of their child, while fathers are entitled to two weeks of statutory paternity leave. Under the new system, mothers can trigger flexible leave anytime after the first two weeks, that is, the parents can share the remaining 50 weeks between them as they like.
A report by mental health experts released last week has condemned Britain for ‘mad house care’ of schizophrenia patients. The experts said there were “catastrophic failings” in treatment and described “shameful” standards of care on some mental health wards.
In another news, Lady Campbell of Surbiton, a disabled crossbench peer, made parliamentary history by becoming the first person in 305 years to be allowed to speak with the aid of a personal assistant in the House of Lords.
A Christian who was demoted in his job for a comment he wrote on Facebook about gay marriages has won a breach of contract action against his employers. Adrian Smith lost his managerial position and had a 40% salary cut after posting a comment on Facebook saying that a gay wedding held in a church was taking “equality too far”. His employers argued that his comment could upset co-workers. However, the High Court saw the employer’s action as excessive.
An interesting article on the BBC talks about the consequences of having a foreign name in Britain. Sangita Myska writes, “Growing up in the 1980s, it was the endless stream of awkward corrections and garbled pronunciation that made me hanker after a name English people could pronounce.” But Sangita decided to keep her name, unlike many others in the 70s who adopted anglicised names to be able to fit in. Sangita says when it comes to foreign names, two basic British values of freedom of choice and good manners should be considered: “While I don’t expect people to always say my name correctly, I do expect them to try.”
Came across anything interesting? Let us know – Equality.and.Diversity@lse.ac.uk.
