To put it another way religious discrimination ‘was justified by  the Council’s desire to provide its services in a non- discriminatory way’.  So discrimination on religious grounds is OK to avoid discrimination against same sex couples. Sounds like that’s gay laws trumping religious laws. Why isn’t it?

Because we need to decide whether the result would be reversed if the situation was reversed.  Consider a gay doctor who refused to treat a patient known for their viscerally anti gay religious views- would that doctor’s employer be justified in threatening dismissal? We will not know for sure until it happens but I think it is a safe bet that following Ladele that an employment  tribunal will decide that the employer has a duty to extend its services to all comers. That means not permitting its staff to make such choices.

And in other news… the government has recently announced that because of a fall in the RPI the maximum compensatory award which an employment  tribunal can make is reduced from £66200 to £65300 with effect from 1st February 2010