Labour: “BNP members should not be allowed to teach in Scotland”

From ‘The Journal’ newspaper.

BNP claim it is a breach of their human rights to withhold employment based on political beliefs

The General Teaching Council’s (GTC) code of conduct is strong enough to prevent BNP members from becoming teachers in Scotland, according to Scottish Labour.

The comments come following a speech by schools secretary Ed Balls to the Labour conference in Brighton last week, in which he ordered a review in England and Wales to “keep racism and BNP activity out of all our schools”.

Rhona Brankin, Scottish Labour’s education spokesperson, said: “We all condemn the idea of having racists teaching in our classrooms. No one would want their children educated by a neo-Nazi. Here, the General Teaching Council for Scotland has much stronger powers to ensure that anyone in the classroom is a fit and proper person to be a teacher.”

A Scottish Labour spokesperson added: “The BNP are not a normal political party. They are a violent bunch of fascists who stand against everything the vast majority of Scots hold dear.”

The review ordered by Mr Balls will consider whether or not to ban BNP members from becoming teachers in England and Wales, but will not effect the Scottish education system as it falls under the jurisdiction of the Scottish Parliament.

Regarding a similar review in Scotland, a Scottish government spokesman said: “Teachers must adhere to the General Teaching Council for Scotland’s Code of Professionalism and Conduct, which states that teachers must not be prejudiced by views about a pupil’s lifestyle, culture, disability, beliefs, colour, gender, language, sexuality or age. Membership of a specific political party in itself is not a breach of the Code.”

Speaking to The Journal, Gary Raikes, leader of the Scottish BNP, defended his party, saying that it is wrong to deny a teacher the right to employment based on political beliefs:

“The BNP are not neo-Nazis or violent fascists. Those that level these insults at us do so due to their ignorance. I would suggest that by trying to deny teachers employment because of their political beliefs is in itself a fascist act and a breach of our members’ human rights.”

GTC Scotland would not comment specifically on the situation, highlighting instead the stability of the system and the strict measures in place.

GTC Scotland Chief Executive Anthony Finn said: “We are content that our Code of Professionalism and Conduct offers a robust and fair measure by which to ensure that teachers registered in Scotland are fit to teach in our Schools.”

Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill has claimed that the Scottish government/SNP were on target to reach their election promise of 1000 police officers by 2011. There are, however, some serious issues regarding these new young officers. One of which was described in an earlier post by the British National Party Scotland news team (see link at end of post).

The young recruits that are making up these numbers of “new” officers now have a new cause for concern.

Strathclyde police are reportedly receiving weekly reports on criminal gangs that are attempting to infiltrate the police force through social networking sites i.e. Facebook, MySpace and Bebo.

Young and inexperienced new recruits are leaving themselves vulnerable to this sort of technological criminal activity and have been warned against writing personal information on such sites.

As criminal networks are aiming to take advantage of the latest police recruitment initiatives to infiltrate the police force.

Who knows what sort of police officers they are recruiting in order to meet the SNP manifesto promise!

Detective Chief Inspector Alan Gall, head of the force’s Counter Corruption Unit, said when speaking about criminal organisations:

“Their desire to protect their finances is so great now. They see opportunities within the huge recruitment drive within the service.

“They will recognise that there’s an opportunity there to put individuals into the service.”

Gall also hinted at the large numbers of new younger recruits who have “less life experience” and are particularly vulnerable to corruption – this is also something criminal gangs were looking to exploit.

Officers have been issued with guidelines warning them about using such social networking sites as described above.

Gall added: “They need to be mindful. They can be damaging to the reputation of the service and to their own personal circumstances.”

In the first quarter of 2009, 17,048 police officers are in the police force in Scotland. In 2008, 15 Strathclyde officers and staff members were reported to the procurator fiscal facing charges of corruption.

Article – SNP Pledge Could Put Lives At Risk With Newbie Recruits In High Gang Areas

The SNP have drafted in 50 more experts at the cost of £1.75 million to the taxpayer in the fight against terrorism.

These will include; financial investigators (for MP/MSP expenses?) security advisors and intelligence experts.

The SNP “hope” that the move to bring in these experts will help the police combat activity by terrorists and work with communities to raise awareness of violet extremists.
Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill said terrorism is a real threat to Scotland.

He said: “The Glasgow Airport attack of two years ago showed that Scotland is not immune from that threat, and that is why we all need to work together to reduce the possibility of another terrorist attack in this country.

“The Scottish Government is fully committed to the fight against international terrorism and that is why we are equipping our police forces to tackle this threat.

“These additional counter-terrorism officers will help to make our country more secure and allow the police to work with communities to raise awareness of terrorism and related issues to make Scotland a safer place.”

He added: “We will continue to work with other jurisdictions, south of the border and elsewhere, to ensure the safety of all our citizens and that those who seek to disrupt our way of life to perpetrate terror are prosecuted for their crimes.”

He went on to say that they are working closely with senior officers in the police and other bodies to develop “a Scottish approach” to preventing terrorism (how about not letting those who are more likely to perform terrorist activities into the country?), focusing on communications, knowledge and understanding (of why terrorists commit acts of terrorism?) and better co-ordination.

From now on the Scottish executive is going to get the taxpayer to pay £14 million a year to combat terrorism.

Funnily enough, I’m not concerned that old Jimmy down the road is about to become a suicide bomber and blow us all to smithereens. What I am concerned about is the amount of individuals who are allowed to come here from countries where suicide bombers and murders are the norm. Where families encourage other family members to become terrorists as part of the norm. Where violence towards women and animals is the norm. And where children are used and abused is the norm.

Now that’s where a terrorist is going to come from!