Holden Caulfield
17th November 2008, 14:50
Today BNP members, assorted hangers on (yes Patrick Harrington that means you and your pretend trade union 'Solidarity) and front groups will be protesting in Birmingham city centre in support of disgraced teacher and BNP member Adam Walker.
He resigned from Houghton Kepier Sports College after it was claimed he'd posted comments condemning asylum seekers, immigrants, homosexuality and Islam during a lesson. Since then he's been employed as a supply teacher but tomorrow he's facing a disciplinary hearing at the General Teaching Council who accuse him, not unfairly, of being a racist which would ban him from teaching.
The BNP, plus hangers on, are billing their protest as being about 'supporting liberty', opposing the 'political vetting of teachers' and preventing employers from sacking people whose political views they don't agree with.
Now, on the one hand liberty is a good thing, political vetting is a bad thing and the overwhelming majority of people who have been sacked on political grounds in Britain have been socialists or Marxists. Yet, on the other, racists have no place teaching kids.
Let's get a bit of perspective on this though and look at the BNP's record on 'freedom' and 'liberty' for teachers with unconventional political views.
BNP members have a notoriously bad ability to recall anything the party has done previously, anything objectionable they did before yesterday can safely be termed the bad old BNP that's now in the past, which might explain why the campaign around Adam Walker doesn't seem like total hypocrisy.
In 2004 two young members of the BNP, Joe Finnon and Diane Stoker, infiltrated the Manchester branch of the Socialist Workers Party uncovering a lot of information about the branch, its activities and individual members.
They were probably the source for the story in the May/June issue of the spectacularly misnamed 'Voice of Freedom', the BNP newspaper, which exposed the workplace of Manchester SWP activist and teacher Clive Searle. This same article then argued for him to be sacked for 'bringing the school into disrepute' through his political activities.
So, it seems some teachers can be sacked for their political views as long as they're not members of the BNP. This would be an infringement on their civil liberties.
Another neat reason why the complete hypocrites of the BNP have no right to talk to anyone about liberty or freedom.
He resigned from Houghton Kepier Sports College after it was claimed he'd posted comments condemning asylum seekers, immigrants, homosexuality and Islam during a lesson. Since then he's been employed as a supply teacher but tomorrow he's facing a disciplinary hearing at the General Teaching Council who accuse him, not unfairly, of being a racist which would ban him from teaching.
The BNP, plus hangers on, are billing their protest as being about 'supporting liberty', opposing the 'political vetting of teachers' and preventing employers from sacking people whose political views they don't agree with.
Now, on the one hand liberty is a good thing, political vetting is a bad thing and the overwhelming majority of people who have been sacked on political grounds in Britain have been socialists or Marxists. Yet, on the other, racists have no place teaching kids.
Let's get a bit of perspective on this though and look at the BNP's record on 'freedom' and 'liberty' for teachers with unconventional political views.
BNP members have a notoriously bad ability to recall anything the party has done previously, anything objectionable they did before yesterday can safely be termed the bad old BNP that's now in the past, which might explain why the campaign around Adam Walker doesn't seem like total hypocrisy.
In 2004 two young members of the BNP, Joe Finnon and Diane Stoker, infiltrated the Manchester branch of the Socialist Workers Party uncovering a lot of information about the branch, its activities and individual members.
They were probably the source for the story in the May/June issue of the spectacularly misnamed 'Voice of Freedom', the BNP newspaper, which exposed the workplace of Manchester SWP activist and teacher Clive Searle. This same article then argued for him to be sacked for 'bringing the school into disrepute' through his political activities.
So, it seems some teachers can be sacked for their political views as long as they're not members of the BNP. This would be an infringement on their civil liberties.
Another neat reason why the complete hypocrites of the BNP have no right to talk to anyone about liberty or freedom.