Den britiske journalisten og forfatteren Melanie Phillips har en kronikk i Daily Mail i den fornyede debatten rundt niqab og burka i Storbritannia. Hun var tidligere journalist i den venstreorienterte avisen The Guardian men forlot dem i 1993 da hun sa at hennes forhold til avisen og dets lesere “had become like a really horrific family argument”. Hun var deretter innom The Observer og Sunday Times før hun etablerte seg i Daily Mail i 2001. Hun skriver:

The full veil radically alters the balance  of power between the woman it conceals and those attempting to communicate with  her. This is because while they cannot see her face, she can see theirs.

The result is that they are no longer  communicating as equals, because she has a basic advantage over them. And no one  has the right to bring about that imbalance.

Melanie Phillips tar videre for seg beslutningen ved Birmingham Universitet om å tillate burka og niqab etter åtte års forbud. I Birmingham er 42% av befolkningen “ikke-hvite” og populasjonen er yngre enn gjennomsnittet ellers i landet. Andelen hvite briter har sunket med 12 prosentpoeng de siste 10 årene.

To his credit, the Prime Minister backed the  Birmingham college’s earlier decision to ban such veils, and let it be known  that he would back a similar ban at his children’s school.

However, Nick Clegg declared he was uneasy  about the ban and believed the bar had to be set ‘very high’ to justify such  a prohibition.

For heaven’s sake, how can it be set any  higher than a garment that replaces normal human communication by a sinister and  intimidating black-out?

Mr Clegg’s lamentable feebleness of mind  reflects widespread confusion about multiculturalism. For this doctrine is not,  as is so often thought, merely about being tolerant of other  cultures.

It holds instead that no culture can uphold  its own values over any other.

It means, therefore, that Britain cannot say  its core values of openness, equality before the law, women’s rights and so on should take precedence over cultures based on oppression and  inequality.

It thus damns basic western values as  ‘discrimination’ or ‘racism’, and turns the application of common sense into a prohibited activity.

Leder for The Liberal Democrats, Nick Clegg, får så hatten passer:

It is, in short, a mad reversal of truth and  justice that ultimately would destroy western society — a fate that risks being  brought about not by Leftist rabble-rousers or Islamic fanatics, but by  sanctimonious idiots like Nick Clegg.

Dette var Melanies siste kronikk i Daily Mail. Hun er ellers å finne på sin egen webside.