Equality bill removes protection for BNP members

When the BNP's membership list was leaked last year there were calls for BNP members to be sacked from public sector jobs. Much to their dismay, though, left-wing councils found that their own party's religious discrimination legislation prevented them from dismissing people for being in the BNP.

When it amended its previous legislation with the Equality Act 2006, the government introduced protection for "any religious or philosophical belief" - which, as employment lawyers confirmed, made it as illegal to discriminate against BNP members as it was to discriminate against Muslims.

I thought at the time the law was passed that this must have been a cock up and, sure enough, the government is trying to change the law again. In its latest equality bill, which was published earlier today, the notes to paragraph 10 state:

Political beliefs and beliefs in scientific theories are not religious or philosophical beliefs for these purposes.

Communism, Darwinism, Fascism and Socialism are not beliefs that fall within the definition; nor is adherence to a particular football team. However, beliefs such as atheism and humanism would be covered.

The note also says:

This clause replaces similar provisions in the Employment Equality (Religion or Belief) Regulations 2003 and the Equality Act 2006.

So, if this bill passes, it will once again become legal to sack people for BNP membership, if an employer can show that simply being a member of the party is enough to upset an employee's colleagues or clients.

One loophole nicely plugged.

Comments

[Frank]

Atheism is not a belief, it is an acknowledgement of fact.

[G. Tingey]

Furthermore, there is no such thing as "Darwinism" except in the rotted minds of christian and muslim fundamentalist loonies.
EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY - which is to say, the
whole edifice of the biological Sciences isn't a "belief" either.
It is a large body of proven facts.

Could be interesting if a profound fuckwit religious believer, who also happens to be an employer decides to sack someone who is an atheist or has dealings with evolutionary biology - say a teacher in a school supported by the fundie-christian car-dealer ......
That paragraph is a virtual garuantee of getting the case all the way to the EUHCR, where it will be trashed as the crap it surely is.

Oops.

[Pat]

It would appear to make it legal to sack people for their belief in socialism.

[Steve]

Well, yes, but only if you could show that because the person was a socialist it caused problems for others. It's unlikely that people are going to object to working with a socialist.

I can think of circumstances where people might object to employing a communist though. Could, say, a social club for Tibetan refugees legitimately refuse a job to a communist on the grounds that his views would upset their members?

In all probability, though, discrimination on the grounds of political views is most likely to hit BNP supporters as even some trade unions want to ban them from various workplaces. It wouldn't surprise me to learn that union pressure was behind this change in the law.

[Lurker]

Its great we won the Cold War, banishing the spectre of totalitarianism from Europe.

[Matthew Cain]

So would it be legal for a school to sack a teacher who refused to teach creationism?

[asquith]

Of course it isn't really about the BNP, it's about persecuting anyone New Labour deems unaccetable.

I rember when Nick Griffin was arrested. The usual twats celebrated, without realising that it sets a shockingly illiberal precedent which could well end up with one of their heroes being arrested as essentially a political prisoner.

Because the BNP are so unpopular, few would complain about restrictions on them, but they will obviously object when it happens to them. Just because they view themselves as righteous doesn't mean a future authoritarian government will, & the tools for the job of persecuting just about anyone will be there.

Of course the exact same thing goes for ID cards.

Just in case I need to say this, I wouldn't vote BNP as I don't share their values or agree with their particular policies. However, I get on quite well with those BNP members I know (of whom there are many in Stoke). So not only do I not think they should be vilified, I also discern that New Labour are using them & their unpopularity as a trojan horse to shaft others.

This is a point which previous commentators have raised re: religious fuckwits.

[asquith]

The above explains why I oppose this, opposed similar laws, the arrest of Griffin as mentioned. In general, "we need to do this to stop the BNP" heralds a fucking vile policy of some kind.

[G. Tingey]

asquith...
AND:
"We only need these powers to be able to control DRUG DEALERS / PAEDOPHILES / Insert name of favoured witch-hunt group here" .....

[Monty]

Er, isn't anti-racism, or anti-fascism, a political belief?

So wouldn't the members of UAF be liable to summary dismissal?

Ditto for Hunt Saboteurs, Greenpeace, and members of any of the spin-off organisations of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Like all hastily cobbled together ramshackle panic measures, this will provide lots of entertainment before it finally rolls over and dies.

[Matt Wardman]

This has the feel of a job-creation scheme for lawyers. A Friday afternoon law.

>In general, "we need to do this to stop the BNP" heralds a fucking vile policy of some kind.

Yes.

btw Matthew it also specifies:

Religion or belief Show

(1) Religion means any religion and a reference to religion includes a reference to a lack of religion.

(2) Belief means any religious or philosophical belief and a reference to belief includes a reference to a lack of belief.

So the answer is no, although I'm not sure teachers have a let out to avoid teaching stuff they don't believe in under their contract. Lots of case law coming.

>Darwinism

Not doing angels on pinheads today, but I *wish* they had put Scientism in there, just to stir up the hornets nest.

[George Miller]

"Much to their dismay, though, left-wing councils found that their own party's religious discrimination legislation prevented them from dismissing people for being in the BNP."

These people never realize which way they point the gun. They're always surprised to find a hole through their foot when the trigger is pulled. I too am an atheist and atheism is a non-belief. I sure hope atheists aren't muscling in on this embarrassing practice of using government coercion (redundant language) to shut people up who “offend” them.