On my trips to France one of the great pleasures is disporting myself on the beach in a little micro thong getting that all over tan. You do have to make an effort on the Riviera where a bit of dental floss holding on a scrap of cloth is considered perfectly adequate beachwear.

By way of contrast a report from a committee of the French Parliament is proposing banning the wearing of the veil in public buildings such as schools and hospitals and on public transport. This mooted piece of legislation is being driven by the UMP but in a world class show of gutlessness the Socialist Party members on the committee abstained.

To erase any possible doubt that this is an entirely Islamophobic proposal the committee rejected a suggestion to hold a parliamentary investigation into Islamophobia and anti-Muslim discrimination.

The whole issue has been wrapped up in a debate about national identity and the laws supporters have managed to construct an alliance of secularists, including Communist deputies, feminists and racists. Even the French Interior Ministry admits that fewer than 2000 women in a population of almost 60 million choose to cover their faces for cultural or religious reason. If French national identity, whatever that is, can’t withstand that pressure it must be a pretty fragile construction.

Any buffoon can predict that within hours of this law coming into effect lots of young Muslim women in France who have not previously wanted to wear the veil will start to do so. They will quite rightly see it as a racist government trying to force its cultural norms on their lives and inevitably some will end up in prison or will be refused entry into schools or denied access to public services because of the way they choose to practise their religion. The other outcome is that a piece of legislation which its supporters say is designed to free them will keep them as prisoners in their own homes.

Allowing women the right to wear what they want is an utterly basic part of removing restrictions on their individual freedom. In predominantly Muslim countries that can mean a struggle for the right not to wear veils or scarves. In countries where Muslims are a minority the right to wear any piece of clothing can often equally an expression of individual freedom. To ban it strengthens the hand of those who insist on fundamentalist interpretations of Islam which encourage believers to withdraw from political life and retreat into the most obscurantist forms of religious practice.

Despite the French state’s vaunted secularism it gives a privileged position to the Catholic church, allowing it to run schools and universities subsidised by the tax payer and you can watch Mass on TF1 every Sunday morning. By contrast Islam is discussed only to be vilified and its adherents branded as not quite French or potential criminals and terrorists and, as the Socialist Party’s abstention in today’s vote reveals, a lot of these old colonial attitudes are not just to be found on the French right.