Lillian's ping-pong pantomime of prejudice continues

Good Old Lillian Ladele! She just doesn’t give up.

This bigoted Christian registrar, who was threatened with the sack when she refused to “marry” same-sexers, is now taking her case directly to the Court of Appeal.

Ladele, 48, from Finsbury, is being supported again by the odious and rabidly homophobic Christian Institute. This nest of lunatic vipers has said she will go directly to the Court of Appeal after the Employment Appeal Tribunal overturned the religious discrimination claim she won at an earlier hearing and refused her a leave to appeal (but she can petiton the Court of Appeal directly).

Mike Judge, a spokesman for the loonies, is quoted as saying, “Clearly this is an issue on which people on both sides have strong feelings. But we think Lillian has been treated unfairly and that’s what we will be saying to the Court of Appeal.

“We believe the decision that Islington Council took to discipline Lillian for not doing civil partnerships was an overreaction. They need to respect the rights of their religious employees too.”

Ladele, who was a registrar for more than a decade before civil partnerships were introduced in 2005, claims she was bullied and threatened with the sack when she told Islington Council she did not want to do what she was paid to do and splice people who wished to tie the knot.

She was a public servant, expected to carry out the public’s bidding. This was the public’s bidding, brought about through the democratic process (or as much democracy as we are allowed under the present system).

If doing a particular job makes someone physically ill – such as, say, in the case of a courier who’s allergic to cats and is being forced to make frequent drop-offs to a cats’ home instead of being allowed to do other drops instead – that’s a different matter. And his or her aversion can be medically proven.

But this is just religion, delusional ideas about what’s “right” and “wrong”. Any bigot could claim religious sensitivities (that’s not saying that Ladele is lying about her Christianity and her associated beliefs (I don't think she is), just a comment on what could happen), so it’s hardly a good reason to be let off doing the job.

We get similar problems with moaning Muslims who refuse to handle alcohol. Anyone would think they were being forced to drink the stuff, just as you would think, from the fuss that Christians make about same-sex unions, that they were being forced into taking part in them.