Fostering liberty
If David Cameron were looking for a couple to symbolise the spirit of his Big Society, Eunice and Owen Johns of Derby would be ideal. At an age when many are settling down to retirement, they want nothing more than to carry on fostering, taking in troubled and abandoned children in return for modest financial reward but a huge sense of fulfilment. Described in one assessment by Derby City Council as ‘kind and hospitable people who would always do their best to make a child welcome and comfortable’, they are perfect role models, it might be imagined, at a time when there is a national shortage of 10,000 foster parents.
Yet the Johns will foster no more. Last week the High Court upheld Derby’s decision to ban them on the grounds that they showed insufficient belief in gay equality. In doing so, the court rejected the Johns’ counter-argument that the city council had discriminated against their religious beliefs.
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