Labour's latest lunacy is enforced equality for nutters. From The Times:

VEGANS and teetotallers are to be given the same protection against discrimination as religious groups, under legislation championed by Harriet Harman, the equalities minister.

Members of cults and “new religions” such as Scientology, whose supporters include the film stars Tom Cruise and John Travolta, would also be offered protection, as would atheists.

A code of practice explaining the legal implications of the equality bill states that religions need not be mainstream or well known for their adherents to gain protection. “A belief need not include faith or worship of a god or gods, but must affect how a person lives their life or perceives the world.”

The code, drawn up by the Equality and Human Rights Commission, singles out vegans, who do not eat any animal products or wear leather, as meriting protection from religious discrimination. It says: “A person who is a vegan chooses not to use or consume animal products of any kind. That person eschews the exploitation of animals for food, clothing, accessories or any other purpose and does so out of an ethical commitment to animal welfare.”

A spokesman from the commission explained: “This is about someone for whom being vegan or vegetarian is central to who they are."

"Eschew" not chew, and you too could be a vegan. "Central to who they are"? How is it better if nuttiness is central to the nutter rather than peripheral? If vegetablists, teetotallers and whey-faced cadaverous vegan fruitbats want to indulge their pathology in their own time, let them. But why should red-blooded omnivores be compelled to respect them and treat them as equals? They are not our equals, being literally two ham sandwiches short of a picnic. Another thing, Halal butchery is pretty central to who Muslims are. Will the vegan be compelled to respect it?

Of course veganism is not in the same league as Islam - the worst a vegan will do is bore you to death - but I still don't see why either should be protected. The only people not protected by this stupid "Equality Code" - as if human beings have ever been or ever could be equal - are normal people, that is people without fads, whims, hair-trigger grievances or murderous tendencies.