No British - No Women

[MrSpoc]

I have just come across this article:

www.cambridge-news.co.uk/Huntingdon-St-Ives-St-Neots/Playgroup...

am i being unreasonable to be disgusted at how this can be legal.

A support group is fine, but why wasn't that explained to the mums who joined and were then evicted?
And why can they not go to the normaal toddler group then?

Why should supporting non Brits mean excluding Brits?

I have got no problem with this personally.

There is something similar I believe in Gloucester.

Where in Cambridgeshire are these plentiful groups exclusively for British mothers, giyadas?

I fail to be able to identify any publicly funded/assisted clubs in the county which tell women that they may not take part because they are not British.

If this was a group soley for native speakers and they wanted their children to practice thier French/arabic/spanish whatever.. I could understand.

But unless I am missing something the only people not allowed are the British? How is that not racist?

And if people don't want to be a minority they can make friends, integrate and become part of their community...or go home?

FFS this has got to be the only country in the world where the home nationality can be discriminated against.

The dominant group (white Brits) are well catered for and get what they want generally and do not feel marginalised in society. It is about supporting those who need it not specifically excluding others.

Can anyone imagine if the excluded people were Pakistani, FRench, german?

yes, it would still be legal and the people would be criticised for being small-minded bigots by some while others would defend them saying "there's plenty of groups for x, I don't see what's wrong with this group of Y wanting to socialise with their own/like-minded people"
which is exactly what's happening here.

Is it not right that men and women should expect to be able to walk into a playgroup and expect not to be turfed out because of thier nationality.

May be they are the dominant group because this is the country that they grew up in.

I was just making the point that we could not have a similar group where we exclude all non-british people as there would be public outrage, but why should this be any different under the equality act? However I feel that this type of spin on a story in the media is fodder for the likes of the BNP.

...but they can't attend with their British friend(s).

WEll if you advertised specifically to attract those women fair enough, I can't imagine it would inundated with Brits, but to say they can't attend is lunacy. And I'm not sure I care more about 'marginalised' non Brits than lonely British mothers.

That is exactly why they are the dominant group. Everyone else is naturally excluded by the dominant ones- sometimes it is very overt and sometimes it isn't. Many young mothers who are perhaps new to the country, perhaps do not speak the language very well and who have little support would not always feel welcome by walking into your run of the mill toddler group.

mayor quimby, its not their own/like minded people they are socialising with. Its every other nation except the people of the nation who is hosting it.

for example you may have an Aussie family, a Chineese family an Indian Family and a Nigerian family - i think they said that they have over 70 different nationalities attend.

the only thing they will have in common is that they do not origionally come from this country.

You could walk into most toddler groups confident that the majority, if not all, of the people there would be british, Valhalla. You don't need a specialised group.
There is nothing to suggest that these women haven't integrated themselves, this is just one group.
White British are the majority in this country, it's ridiculous to suggest we are discriminated against.

I think thats out of order, if it was the other way round and they said british only and said to the other lady like "sorry you have asian parents, its white only in here" it would be an outcry and rightly so.
They should all be open to mixing, and thats normally one of the great things about toddler groups (well in London anyway) they are so mixed and i think it helps people integrate, for me it helped to get to know and mix with all different people in the community whereas before i hardly knew anyone thats not muslim (altho different background among muslims though obviously) but really thats not healthy because you get cut off from the mainstream society. They should be open to any parent.
Or if they want to restrict it in some way to make some groups comfy then do a group turkish speaking, somali speaking etc to make it clear who its aimed at, cos theres a purpose in that but "anyone other than white british" has no purpose what so ever and is totally wrong. it's the kind of thing people try to do to show they are soo liberal but go so far they come back in a circle to actually being racist themselves.

"I was just making the point that we could not have a similar group where we exclude all non-british people as there would be public outrage, but why should this be any different under the equality act?"

Why do you think you couldn't? I see no reason why such a group would fall foul of the law or any legislation, admittedly my knowledge is primarily Irish law but our systems and legislation are often closely linked but if there is something particular to England that would make such a group illegal I apologise.
If you believe it's because there'd be public outcry then I'm not sure what the point is? It's unfair because the public don't mind a group that excludes British people but would mind one that excluded non-British people?

"mayor quimby, its not their own/like minded people they are socialising with. Its every other nation except the people of the nation who is hosting it."

My point was not that I think they are trying to socialise with their own kind, apologies for the confusion.
My post was in response to PosieParkers post saying "imagine if you had a group that exclude X,Y or Z", and the point I was trying to make was that if you had this group in reverse it would be exactly the same. There'd be people who would criticise the group for being small minded bigots (this is the camp I would place myself in, I think the group we are discussing has a disgusting criteria for membership) and that there'd be people defending them with the line of "there's plenty of groups that are all inclusive what's wrong with one for Y specifically" which is also what is happening here.

Prejudice is not a one way street or reserved for minorities. In this instance a person is prevented from doing something because they are British....it's a disgrace.

Now near me there's a FRench speaking toddler group, I'm sure only french mothers take their children...I can go if I want though. Same as the Muslim playgroup or the Farsi or otherwise. It's probable that the main group are Iranian/Muslim/whatever, they seek to include particular groups but not exclude anyone.

I don't see how it's any different from the International Women's Clubs you get for expats all over the world. Locals can't join them.

posie,
They are being excluded because they are already well catered for -it is not a disgrace it is about supporting those in a community.

Just to take the argument one step further - is it right to exclude men form toddler groups?

The claimed protection under the Equality Act in the linked article seems dodgy. In order to defend this, the group would have to demonstrate that "Non-British" is somehow a protected characteristic under ch.1 of the Act.

You CAN restrict services to groups with a protected characteristic e.g. an over-70s club, or a Tamil women's support group.

I don't believe for a moment that the courts would uphold "Non-British" as a protected characteristic.

Alligatorpurse - I dont know much about International Womens Clubs but would thses not be in the UK anyway so irrelivant to the UK?