Judge shows common sense

Judge uses Common Sense - Nationwide Protests - Judge overruled by Straw's Supreme Court

Well, not exactly, but the first has happened and I expect the second to take place any time now.

Today the Daily Telegraph revealed that an Employment Tribunal Judge had stated "An individual's race or colour is a fact of life. It does not follow that alluding to such matters to or in the presence of the individual concerned necessarily involves racism or less favourable treatment of the individual."  An employee was claiming damages for wrongful dismissal, having been sacked on the grounds that the banter between him and a coloured worker was racist and that he had added to the offence by being a member of the BNP. (Since when was being a member of the BNP a sacking matter?)
The Judge ruled that he had been wrongfully dismissed, the comments were normal workplace banter and that there was no evidence that the sacked worker belonged to the BNP. The Judge awarded him damages against Lambeth Council.
Incidentally, the original disciplinary hearing was chaired by a council official  whose title is Head of Resilience. What on earth can this mean? (see below)

The question now is "When will the protests start?". Surely the Race Relations Industry can't allow such a decision to stand as it would undermine the whole purpose of their existence. What would politicians do without the right to make unfounded racist allegations against an opponent when they have no logical arguments against what he is saying. These days the words "Racism" or "Racist" are used by anyone in order  to try to smear a person against whom they have a grudge.

And if protests do start, no doubt Lambeth Council will use Council Tax payers' money to fund appeals all the way to the Straw's "Supreme Court" in spite of their initial statement that they will accept the ruling.

Of course, the obvious question to ask is why everybody except the English seem to be getting so sensitive; it's not only the coloureds, but also the Scots and the Irish, where members of both groups have recently made claims of racism on the basis of normal workplace banter. Personally, I don't believe that they are more sensitive and that it is more likely these people are the modern fortune hunters; making complaints in the hope of hitting the compensation jackpot.

Before I retired, I had a Barbadian working for me. When I came back from my summer holiday he would joke that my tan had a long way to go to reach his standard; I'd make a comment when he returned along the lines that I was sure he was lighter than when he went. No doubt similar comments were exchanged with others and no-one minded the least. When he retired he went back to Barbados because of racism here; not he assured me racism from the whites, but from the more recently arrived coloureds who used such phrases as a "whitey's friend" and who suggested that he should have accused our employer of racism as he hadn't been promoted to a higher grade and that he should take more advantage of his colour.

Yes there has been the odd cases of severe racial harassment, but I remain convinced that probably 99% of the cases are being brought in the hope of getting money out of someone.


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Resilience:

1. The ability to recover quickly from illness, change, or misfortune; buoyancy.

2. The property of a material that enables it to resume its original shape or position after being bent, stretched, or compressed; elasticity.