The Muslim Council of Britain is annoyed by Sarkozy’s suggestion that the burqa should be banned in France. Predictably the word “offensive” is used. I wonder what that same council has to say about the dress codes in Saudi Arabia, Iran, and so on. Not a lot, I suspect.

Meanwhile, Britain’s Shahid Malik, the Orwellian-titled “Communities Minister” comes out with the sort of dishonest nonsense that one has come to expect from the Blair-Brown governments:

There are no laws [in the UK] stating what clothes or attire are acceptable and so whether one chooses to wear a veil or burqa, a miniskirt or goth outfit is entirely at the individual’s discretion.

Really? He should chat to a nudist or two, or for that matter, to someone on a motor bike who prefers not to wear a crash helmet. As I mentioned the other day, there are good arguments to be made against a burqa ban, but the idea that the British state isn’t in the business of regulating clothing is not one of them.