One test for whether a Bill is worthwhile or not: CTFM opposition = almost certainly a good thing

One thing about organising public campaigns is that they’re, by definition, kind of public. You can’t propose an effort to swamp MPs with letters lobbying for your side, without inadvertently warning the opposing side of what you’re doing.

Take the Catch The Fire nutters’ desperate entreaty to fundamentalists this weekend, urging them to write to their MP to oppose the upcoming Equal Opportunity Bill 2010.

CTFM are worried that the fairly flimsy protections for the sort of people they’d like to discriminate against – gay people who’d dare to be teachers, unbelievers employed as gardeners, that sort of thing – are STILL TOO MUCH:

Ask your MPs to vote against the Equal Opportunity Bill 2010.

• Tell them you are very concerned about the restrictions relating to religious freedom that this Bill includes – by making religious bodies prove it is ‘reasonably necessary’ for them to discriminate and by including an ‘inherent requirement’ test for employment for religious schools and bodies (Section 81-84).
• Also outline your opposition to the extension of powers to the Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission in part 9 of the Bill which will allow them to launch their own ‘investigations’ into discrimination without a complaint being made.

It’s not enough that the Bill still lets us discriminate against people for their sexual orientation or private religious beliefs, but it must do so without any limit whatsoever! And how dare the “Commission” “launch” “investigations” “into” “discrimination”! That’s like asking the police to “investigate” “crime”! (If a murdered person doesn’t complain, then the police should leave it alone.)

Well, we now know that even the marginal improvement that the Bill represents is now under threat. Fortunately, there’s an easy way to counter letters from fundamentalists: with our own. You can find your MPs’ names and email addresses here. Write to them in support of the Bill, letting them know that even a slight improvement on the status quo is a step forward, and that a vote against it is a vote for bigotry and oppression and will result in you preferencing them last.

Unless you want them to be only hearing from the people who are fighting hard to retain the power to sack you for no reason other than what you do in your private life.