Faceless NHS mandarins wax lyrical about ‘cultural enrichment’—but doctors on the ground know the truth: cousin marriage is dangerous, oppressive, and ruinously costly.
The Conservatives are absolutely right. And it’s about time someone said it. Why are so many of our public institutions (and yes, that includes the NHS) so eager to contort themselves into the pretzel logic of the “woke” narrative, even when it collides head-on with common sense, science, and basic public safety?
Let’s not mince words. The NHS guidance on cousin marriage, suggesting there are “benefits” to the practice, is not just absurd, it’s dangerous.
This isn’t some abstract ivory-tower debate. Doctors across Britain see children suffering from severe, life-limiting genetic conditions that are the direct result of this practice. That’s not prejudice. That’s not “Islamophobia.” That’s hard medical fact.
So why on earth is the NHS producing guidance that reads less like medicine and more like a sociology seminar? “Stronger family support systems”? “Economic advantages”? Spare us. The reality is stark: cousin marriage carries serious genetic risks. Children of closely related parents are far more likely to inherit life-limiting conditions such as cystic fibrosis or sickle cell disease. That’s not conjecture, it’s science.
Also this practice is not always about free choice. In many cases it is imposed by communities that use it to police women’s freedom and keep wealth trapped within families. That’s not liberation. It’s oppression, cultural control dressed up in the respectable language of “tradition.”
And that brings us to the politics. Too many politicians, particularly on the Left, seem paralysed by the fear of offending. Are they sucking up to the so-called “Muslim vote”? You decide. The truth is, vast numbers of British Muslims reject cousin marriage and want no part of it. But those who do defend it are often the same “community leaders” who cling to power by controlling marriage choices, stifling individuality, and subordinating women.
What message does it send when the NHS, an institution funded by every British taxpayer, bends the knee to these practices instead of standing firm for health, freedom, truth and fairness? It’s not compassionate. It’s cowardly. And it leaves vulnerable women and children to bear the cost.
This is not about xenophobia. This is not about demonising communities. This is about public health, equality, and honesty. If the NHS cannot even bring itself to admit that cousin marriage carries serious risks when doctors themselves are screaming it, then we have to ask: who is writing the guidance, and whose interests are really being served?
The British public deserves leaders with conviction. Politicians like Conservative MP Richard Holden and others willing to speak the unspeakable – that some cultural practices are not just “different,” they are wrong, harmful, and costly.
Enough with the cultural relativism. Enough with the evasions. The NHS should retract this guidance, apologise, and put science and patients above politics. If it won’t, then ministers need to step in and demand answers.
Because this isn’t about woke brownie points. It’s about children’s lives.
By Jack Lions
