ith its second reading due this week. Conservative MP Richard Holden introduced the bill in December, arguing that cousin marriage poses “risks to health, freedom [and] the cohesion of our society”. In February this year, the BBC reported on new data from Born in Bradford showing that children of first cousins were more likely to have speech and language difficulties, more likely to need more hospital appointments, and less likely to “reach a good stage of development”. A 2011 study showed that the likelihood of infant mortality increases substantially if the parents are first or second cousins.
Back to Matthew Syed:
The good news is that Kemi Badenoch has adopted this as Tory policy after campaigning by her colleague Richard Holden, and a poll for YouGov last month showed that 77 per cent of the British people are in favour of a ban (only 9 per cent oppose it). But here’s what astounds me: Labour remains against prohibition, despite (I am told) having read the evidence. Why? How? Permit me to suggest that I glimpse through the façade of prevarication a party still terrified of criticising any cultural practice out of fear of appearing racist. Isn’t that why it was mute for so long on female genital mutilation and honour beatings and still can’t bring itself to describe the burqa as a pernicious symbol of institutional misogyny?
And is busy preparing for a new definition of "Islamophobia" to be introduced.
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