Pancakes and Sharia Law
Phone red hot this week— first pancakes then Sharia. The World at One carrying the story – as were newspapers and radio stations throughout the known world – of the abandonment of Pancake Racing in Ripon – the ‘centuries old tradition’ (which started in 1998) - due to 'Health and Safety' and red tape; ‘Political thingummy gone mad’ as one woman put it on Look North. Once the metaphorical dust settled (there was no actual dust to settle as television pictures of empty streets attested) the phones were ringing again, this time with the Archbishop of Canterbury’s comments on Radio 4 and his speech that night on Sharia Law and its place if any in the British legal system.
Can’t blog for long—only on page 9 of Rowan's dense, 12 page, tightly packed and closely argued speech given at the Temple . Needless to say, it bears no relation to anything he was supposed to have said. But I have found two close connection between both pancakes and sharia -the two news stories of the week.
Connection number one I will encapsulate in a sentence. – Senior clergy should never speak to the press without consulting their press officers first, we are worth our weight in gold, Lambeth palace needs to bolster its Press office (was it a coincidence that all this happened following the departure just a week or two earlier of Jonathan Jennings the senior press officer) and I should be paid a lot more than I am!
Connection number two is a bit more interesting Let me summarise in two sentences:
Pancake racing , as a quasi religious community activity, should be granted freedom from red tape instead of having to apply every year for permission from some jumped up secular council which thinks it has rights over minority communities, in this case the Cathedral community. It should be exempt from stupid ‘vexatious’ claims for compensation if someone trips over on the cobbles of Kirkgate and allowed to operate under its own ancient rules without interference.
There – simple ain’t it! We solve two problem stories in one go. The papers can stop jumping up and down about both the Archbishop and the Political Correctness Gone Mad by recognising that the red tape they railed against at the beginning of the week (especially the Mail and Express) is the same ‘British Legal system’ they are defending over against the rights of religious minorities at the end of the week. The legal system which allows someone to sue the Cathedral and the Council if they trip over their clerical robes while running up the street tossing their pancake should just butt out, and recognise that Pancake racing is a centuries old tradition and in this case the rights of the religious community should take precedence over the local council, the high court or even the European Court of Human Rights.
This may not be a central plank of my argument on Radio Leeds at 8.05 tomorrow, but I’ll try and winkle it in somehow.
Connection number two is a bit more interesting Let me summarise in two sentences:
Pancake racing , as a quasi religious community activity, should be granted freedom from red tape instead of having to apply every year for permission from some jumped up secular council which thinks it has rights over minority communities, in this case the Cathedral community. It should be exempt from stupid ‘vexatious’ claims for compensation if someone trips over on the cobbles of Kirkgate and allowed to operate under its own ancient rules without interference.
There – simple ain’t it! We solve two problem stories in one go. The papers can stop jumping up and down about both the Archbishop and the Political Correctness Gone Mad by recognising that the red tape they railed against at the beginning of the week (especially the Mail and Express) is the same ‘British Legal system’ they are defending over against the rights of religious minorities at the end of the week. The legal system which allows someone to sue the Cathedral and the Council if they trip over their clerical robes while running up the street tossing their pancake should just butt out, and recognise that Pancake racing is a centuries old tradition and in this case the rights of the religious community should take precedence over the local council, the high court or even the European Court of Human Rights.
This may not be a central plank of my argument on Radio Leeds at 8.05 tomorrow, but I’ll try and winkle it in somehow.
Labels: archbishop of canterbury, british law, health and safety, Pancakes, political correctness, Press Officers, Sharia Law, Temple, World at One
posted by John Carter @ 7:57 am
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