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British Airways Unrepentant
British Airways have been forced into an embarrassing climb-down over the suspension of one of its employees, Nadia Eweida, who refused to remove her cross in the face of her employers' biased policies on symbols of faith and uniforms.
Biased because the policies don’t seem to apply to BA staff wearing the symbols from other religions.
The airline's chief executive Willie Walsh said “BA would now consider allowing religious symbols worn as lapel badges”.
But, he said, “it was unfair that BA had been accused of being anti-Christian…The criticism of British Airways has been misplaced and unjustified."
He added, "I am proud to lead an airline that has a track record on diversity and inclusion which is second to none."
In other words the hail of criticism received from church leaders, politicians such as Jack Straw, news commentators and the public in general is “misplaced and unjustified”.
It is significant that Willie Walsh doesn’t offer any justification, or apology for the BA policy and seems to be saying that everyone else has got it wrong.
The key to understanding Mr Walsh’s arrogance in this matter is his mention of BA’s track record on ‘diversity and inclusion’.
No one can doubt BA’s track record here because no footsie 100 company, government department, service or institution in modern Britain can have escaped the edicts of diversity training and inclusion policies, so ruthlessly enforced by Blair’s administration.
In the eyes of the ‘diversity enlightened‘ such as Mr Walsh, organizations such as BA are beyond reproach in these matters.
Diversity is a huge plank in the Blairite religion and an entire industry has been born in Britain based on the idea of re-educating the nation to having the correct thoughts on diversity.
The real issue of BA versus the cross is in fact a problem of the ‘diversity’ creed itself, not that the well intentioned aims therein are wrong, but that the basic presumption that everyone is at heart is a racist bigot is plain wrong and appears to victimize the indigenous people of Britain.
In this case Christians. We can see, for example, through the eyes of the ‘impeccably diverse BBC’ that Christianity is not offered the same reverence or respect that others are afforded. Indeed there is a barely disguised, underlying suspicion that our Christian heritage is a problem.
On the contrary it’s the solution. 72 percent of Britons see themselves as Christians. That’s a lot. Britain has been a Christian country for more than 1,400 years: You don’t wipe that out in ten years ‘diversity training'. The Christian values of tolerance, love, charity, justice and fair governance that bind the nation are assumed by the 72% to be their birthright, their heritage and their aspiration. Indeed, the same values have attracted many of the non-Christians who have settled in Britain.
The 72 percent are deeply offended by this ‘BA-cross’ affair, but it is more likely that they blame the culture of diversity for its bias, rather than British Airways.
They see it as unfair and they see Blair's government's responsibility for it.
