The far-right parties and government employment...

[LibLabUK]

Poll question: The far-right parties and government employment...

Should HM Prison Service's ban on far-right political party* membership be extended to the whole Civil Service?

BBC Story

*read: The BNP


I'm watching you!

[muriel_volestrangler]

1. No, because 'the whole Civil Service' is too wide a category

While racist views are unsuitable in some jobs (eg a prison officer), they don't make a difference in a clerk, if they don't have a chance to discriminate. If the party itself is still held to be legal, you can't ban its members from part of normal life (the chance to have government employment) without specific, well-founded reasons applying to that person and the job they do.

[LeftishBrit]

2. I'm divided here...

I think that Muriel is quite right, but the problem is that in some civil service branches, a person may start in a job without power, but then be promoted to a post where they will have much more power over others.

I don't think people should be barred from any form of employment just because they vote BNP (that's part of the whole principle of the secret ballot). But being an active party member is another matter. It's difficult to see how a person can combine a post which requires impartial service to the whole community, with working for a cause that involves harming or expelling certain sections of that community.