I read with some disgust the view expressed by Jonathan Davis in this column.

If we are to follow his view then it is his position that is the intolerant and discriminatory attitude, and he may well ask ‘what kind of society are we…’ to allow such narrow-minded and bigoted attitudes to prevail.

Religious beliefs as an expressive element of a contract of employment have no place in the working environment unless of course your work is emphatically one of a wholly religious nature, in which case one would be unlikely to be asked to deal with a purely civic function as the law currently stands.

Civil servants are public office holders and are quite rightly expected to carry out all their public and civic functions without discrimination or a prejudice based on a personal religious belief, which outside of their employment they have all the freedoms afforded by a democratic and fair-minded society to actively exercise and express.

P Taylor, Ashley-Shaun & Kemp Solicitors, Lichfield, Staffordshire