The Last Ditch by Tom Paine

THE LAST DITCH

Heterophobia?

Published by Tom

on

Link: Gay tourist hotels fear equality law – Law – Times Online.

Why can’t people run their businesses as they please? The market punishes those who discriminate unreasonably far more effectively than any “equality” legislation.

The proprietor of the gays-only hotel “Guyz” expresses this libertarian view perfectly when he says:

“At the end of the day, this is our home and as a landlord we have the right to refuse entry to anyone without giving a reason.”

Quite right. No-one should be forced to do business with anyone. Attempts to legislate for personal preference do nothing but exacerbate irrational prejudice. Social change and market forces will do, given time, what government cannot.

2 responses to “Heterophobia?”

  1. Welshcakes Limoncello Avatar
    Welshcakes Limoncello

    But what about the “no blacks” and “no coloureds” signs that were everywhere in the 1950s and were prevalent until the Race Relations Act took effect?

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  2. Tom Paine Avatar
    Tom Paine

    What of them, Welshcakes? They were only words. The attitudes they represented would have died with the people posting them. And, while we despise their views as represented by those signs, we had no right to suppress them. I would argue that it was better for black people to know where their enemies were than find themselves among them unawares and paranoid – seeing racists where there are none.
    Had the posters of the signs acted to harm someone, of course, that would be a different matter.

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Your blogger

Tom is a retired international lawyer. He was a partner in a City of London law firm and spent almost twenty years abroad serving clients from all over the world.

Returning to London on retirement in 2011, he was dismayed to discover how much liberty had been lost in the UK while he was away.

He’s a classical liberal (libertarian, if you must) who, like his illustrious namesake, considers that

“…government even in its best state is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one.”

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