Editorial: Northern Ireland keeps trying to follow Scotland into woke policy errors

​Scotland has been at the helm of some foolish political ideas of late – ideas that have bitten the dust.

​Its extremist planned trans law was rightly over-ruled by London, in keeping with transatlantic public feeling against radical approaches to so-called trans rights that in effect can mean men entering private spaces meant for women.

Sweeping aspects of what were due to be included in Scotland’s hate crime speech, such as intruding into protections people have when speaking within the privacy of their own home, were watered down.

And Scotland’s ban against a so-called conversion therapy was ditched.

But that Scotland has retreated from ridiculous seems not to cause woke Stormont MLAs to hesitate in their determination to bring in the same flawed legislation. Alliance party politicians, for example, seem unperturbed by the possibility that their poor showing in their strongholds of North Down and East Belfast, for example, might have been caused by support for such radical social measures.

Now Alliance’s deputy leader Eoin Tennyson MLA has revealed his proposals to create new criminal offences, including engaging in conversion practice. As we report on page 8, Christian critics say the bill is almost identical to the abandoned Scottish proposals and could see parents prosecuted or even jailed if they discourage their child from gender transition or sexual experimentation.

How ridiculous that there should even be the slightest possibility that parents would be inhibited from, let alone jailed for, talking candidly on such matters. They should be able to tell their children what they think about such topics, just as children should be able to reject such advice.

The very phrase LGBT – lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans – recognises a range in sexuality and even in gender identification. But woke extremists seem to think it is outrageous that there might be attempted movement within those groups, and reject entirely the notion that in some people there might be a legitimate desire to change their sexuality.