The Thorny Issue of Hate

This has been causing something of a stir this morning: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/8563044.stm and I have to say, despite my 101% opposition to the BNP, that this is a fair decision.

I agree with the argument that because the BNP is a loathsome, unethical and decidedly unpleasant object on the political trail, it should be prevented from spreading its lies and conjecture across the land, especially to young and impressionable young people. But, are we going to ban Muslim teachers because they might have terrorist sympathies? Are we going to ban Christian Fundamentalists from teaching our kids, because they're all a bit too weird? Are we going to then ban teachers from working if they are for or against, say, fox-hunting, depending on the next party in charge of the government? In fact, shouldn't teachers be faceless automatons, with no political, personal or gender beliefs? I mean, that's what the attempt to sack 15 teachers who support the BNP essentially is. I had a teacher at my school who was essentially a Marxist; he campaigned for Red Wedge and spent his weekends at CND marches. In the grand scheme of things didn't the Americans view communists as worse than fascists? There was never a question of whether he could teach me fairly.

I remember working for a voluntary organisation in recent years that enforced a zero-tolerance policy on stereotyping, being judgemental or discussing with young people subjects such as politics or religion (unless it was enforcing good Christian values). I found this an acceptable way of working, but also a little heavy-handed; a bit like saying you can be in my gang as long as you follow my rules. Which, I believe, is what the people who want these teachers' job are saying.

I like to think of the UK as being a pretty good place for multiculturalism, a wide array of views and opinions and, generally, a place where our bigots are confined to organisations like the BNP. I don't expect the head of the largest teaching union to be calling the report, highlighted in the above link, wrong and inappropriate. If this country took the stand of not allowing any BNP member be allowed to work in the public sector, surely that's as bad as the BNP themselves? I always believed that the Freedom of Speech also meant Freedom of Choice, regardless of whether we agree with it or not. Are we going to have a situation where, if the Tories get in power all Labour voters would be ejected from the civil service?

What would the people opposed to these findings have us do? Strip BNP members of their jobs? Intern them? Have them lose all their civil liberties? Hang placards around their necks proclaiming them to be supporters of fascism? Expecting someone to change their long-standing political views is tantamount to asking a homosexual to stop being gay! Besides, part of me finds this entire ideas slightly unsavoury. This is Britain, not McCarthy-era USA. The BNP thrive on scaremongering and untruths and the only people who get sucked into their propaganda are the disillusioned and ignorant - if party politics spent more time focusing their attentions on the areas of the population that they have rigidly ignored for decades, then perhaps there wouldn't be any attention paid to the BNP and they'd become as insignificant as we'd like them to be.

There are more important issues on the political agenda.