News From Across the Pond: Taking Britain Towards a Bright New PC Future

The Times's Social Affairs Editor (huh?), Nicholas Hellen, reports on a Christian printer refusing to

produce the business cards of a transgender diversity consultant because he did not want to promote a cause that he felt might harm fellow believers.

Nigel Williams, a married father of three based in Southampton, turned down the chance of working for Joanne Lockwood’s consultancy, SEE Change Happen, which offers advice on equality, diversity and inclusion.

Meanwhile, Nicholas Hellen teams up with Caroline Wheeler, along with another Social Affairs Editor, Greg Hurst, to report on the news that Britain's administrative state, in the form of its National Health Service, will pry ever deeper into the private lives — and into the bedrooms — of the once-proudly independent British people:

NHS doctors and nurses in England will be required to ask every patient from the age of 16 to declare their sexual orientation.

Anybody having a face-to-face appointment will be asked about whether they are heterosexual or straight, gay or lesbian, bisexual or other, including asexual.

NHS England says it needs to record the sexual orientation of adults to fulfil its legal duties to provide equally for gay people.

However, some warned of a backlash against intrusion into the private lives of 45m people, with one expert saying the state has “no business in our bedrooms”.

Tim Loughton, a former children and families minister, said: “it's political correctness and compliance with the Equality Act gone bonkers.”