Trevor Phillips adds fuel to the fire

Trevor Phillips, the chairman of the CRE has suggested that the teaching assistant, Aishah Azmi, suspended by Dewsbury's Headfield Church of England Junior School School for refusing to remove her veil in front of a male teacher, "would be doing everybody, including herself, a great favour were she to decide either that she were to comply with the requirements for teaching in the classroom or to decide she didn't want to do that job."

The employment tribunal held that she had not be discriminated against but had been victimised by the school and also recognised the serious subjudice issues in this case.

Whilst, one might on the face of it think that Phillips has a point, his remarks where inconsistent with his office, he is the chair of a government agency, with statutory legal powers on race equality. This intervention, is extraordinary; he is urging a woman to abort a civil suit in the national interest.

In fact, not only does she have the right to pursue her case - all things being equal - she has every prospect of success. In fact it is startling that neither Blair nor Woolas have been held in contempt of court - unquestionably their comments were subjudice -for this reason alone, the case is a more than worthy of being a test case. Government ministers (the Prime Minister no less) really ought not to be indulging in subjudice, no matter how politic.