Once again “democracy” is invoked by E.U.’s Establishment parties to thwart the will of the people. The Great Unwashed will have “democracy” (Coke or Pepsi?) only as long as they vote the “correct” way, inside the parameters determined by moralizing, self-seeking system politicians who know best!
It’s nice to see Conservative and Labour hacks working in tandem to exclude the B.N.P. (i.e., their opponents) from British politics. Very, very democratic!
China is more genuinely democratic than the E.U.
Fear of election gains sparks a bid to alter the law
Toby Helm, Whitehall editor
The Observer, Sunday November 2 2008
Trade unions want the right under UK law to expel British National Party activists - and deny them membership - as part of Labour plans to check the electoral advance of the far right.
Labour backbenchers, supported by all the biggest unions, will
unveil the plan on Tuesday when they put forward an amendment to the
Employment Bill that would allow them to ban racists. The proposal -
labelled ‘Stalinist’ by the BNP - comes amid concern that it could
win as many as three seats in next year’s European Parliament
elections and make strong gains in council elections.
Labour MPs, many of whom feel threatened by the BNP’s advances in
their constituencies, are concerned that the party is encouraging
activists to infiltrate unions in order to spread subversive, racist
messages in the workplace.
Tony Lloyd, chairman of the trades union group of Labour MPs who has
tabled the amendment, said it was vital that unions had the right to
get rid of people working directly against their aims: ‘What the
unions are absolutely right to demand is the right to kick racists
out of their organisations. ‘
Until now unions have had to work under a legal framework set down
under the Thatcher government in the early 1990s which prevented
them from excluding people because of their membership of a
particular political party. The Tory rules were seen at the time as
a ploy to prevent unions from excluding or expelling those who broke
strikes or were Conservative party members.
But the government has to bring UK law into line with European law
after Aslef, the train drivers’ union, won a landmark case in the
European Court of Human Rights which upheld its right to expel a
driver who was a BNP activist.
A spokesman for Thompsons solicitors, the trades union law firm,
said: ‘The amendment would mean a union could expel or deny
membership to someone whose membership of a political party runs
contrary to the union’s rule book.’
The BNP has 10,000 members across Britain and 46 councillors. Labour
is worried that under the proportional representation system that
will be used in European parliamentary elections next June it could
secure seats in three of the 12 regions.
Experts say that, under the list system, the BNP would need as
little as 7.5 per cent of the vote in northwest England and only 11
per cent in Yorkshire and the West Midlands to install Euro-MPs in
the Brussels and Strasbourg parliament. Labour also fears the BNP
could become the largest party in two councils - Barking and
Dagenham in Essex and Stoke-on-Trent - in next year’s council
elections if its anti-foreigner rhetoric struck a chord during the
recession.
MPs, anti-BNP campaigners and lawyers say the bill as recently
amended in the Lords would leave the law in limbo and not guarantee
the right of a union to eject BNP members. Nick Lowles, director of
the anti-fascist group Searchlight, said: ‘The current wording of
the Employment Bill leaves us in the worst of all worlds. Aslef
would still not be able to expel Jay Lee [the BNP member at the
centre of the original European Court ruling] and unions would be
left open to further legal action from the BNP.’
Lowles said the amendment would give clarity, letting unions
discipline and, where necessary, get rid of individual members for
activities contrary to a union’s rules and constitution.
A Department for Business spokesman said: ‘This is a very delicate
issue that involves people’s rights to freedom of association and
their political beliefs. The government’s approach will strike a
balance between these rights.
‘Our present position is in line with the cross-party opinion in the
Lords and Parliament’s Joint Committee on Human Rights.’
http://www.guardian .co.uk/politics/ 2008/nov/ 02/trade- unions-bnp- far-
right/print
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