BNP’s ugly lies about NHS staff

Screen grab taken from Easington BNP Facebook on 13th April 2010

Easington BNP have spread vicious lies about Muslim NHS staff in order to whip up racial hatred and anti-Muslim sentiments.

The BNP’s propaganda appears to have got its inspiration from a story that appeared in the Daily Mail relating to Muslim doctors and nurses being allowed to cover themselves up while at work. The article raises reasonable concerns about religious equality in the NHS. However, it does not say that Muslim NHS staff are no longer required to wash themselves before attending patients.

The original article explicitly says:

“The new guidance says staff can wear uniforms with long sleeves as long as they roll them up securely above their elbows to wash and when they are on wards.”

A Department of Health spokeswoman told Nothing British:

“The revised workwear guidance gives further clarity to front line staff about the need for staff to have good hand hygiene when in direct patient care. It does not change previous policy.

The guidance is intended to provide direction to services in how they can balance infection control measures with cultural beliefs without compromising patient safety.”

Scaremongering stories about Muslims in order to create the perception of “Islamic colonisation” is an essential and classic part of the BNP’s electoral strategy. It is deliberately designed to conflate Islamic extremism with Islam and exploits voters legitimate fears about extremism. The consequences are plain to see: hysterical racial hatred towards ordinary Muslims.

By spreading these revolting lies the BNP should realise they are playing directly into the hands of Islamic extremists, who can then reasonably claim that the press is responsible for the rise in “Islamaphobia”. It also makes the real fight against Islamism all the more difficult as anti-extremism campaigners become fearful of being labelled racist and Islamaphobic.

The issue of religious dress codes in the work place is a question of suitability and equality; not a conspiracy about Muslims attempting to kill non-Muslims through the spread of infection.

There is nothing patriotic about spreading malicious lies about those who work extremely hard to save British lives on a daily basis.

Nothing British

In My View - Schools and the BNP

In the 21st century, there should be no place for racism, or for the far right's politics of hate, in our schools

The Maurice Smith review was set up to assess what measures are needed to make this a reality. But, by failing to ban the most obvious measure -banning BNP members from working in schools - the review is a missed opportunity.

Membership of the BNP is incompatible with being part of the team delivering education. In fact, the union sees it as incompatible with delivering any public services at all. Our communities are diverse, and multi-racial and public service workers must be able to treat everyone equally.

Schools should be places where children learn values of equality, fairness and inclusion - values that will help create a just and fair society. Allowing BNP members to peddle their message of hate, or the freedom to discriminate against those from ethnic minorities, flies in the face of these principles.

The second missed opportunity of the review was the little attention it paid to the role of support staff. In today's schools, support staff play a significant role in delivering education. They can also have a closer, one-on-one relationship with the pupils they work with. Support staff monitor break-times and areas such as libraries. If left unchecked, support staff who are BNP members could let racist bullying take place.

The review could have also gone one step further, and highlighted the role support staff can play in encouraging community cohesion. Research shows that support staff more closely reflect the community they serve, than teachers. Given the right training, support staff could use this advantage to spread a more inclusive atmosphere in the school and beyond.

Last year UNISON health members voted to keep the BNP out of the NHS. It has already been banned for members of the police and prison officers, for very good reasons. Children deserve to be protected from the influence of the BNP, and UNISON will be pressing for this when the promised review of the guidance set out by Maurice Smith takes place next year.

Dave Prentis, UNISON General Secretary, writing in Nursery World

RCM condemns BNP claims

The RCM has slammed suggestions made by the BNP that immigration is to blame for the pressures facing NHS maternity services.

The BNP had used an RCM survey to back up its claim that developing world immigration was destroying state infrastructure such as the NHS.

It said on its website: ‘According to a survey by the Royal College of Midwives issued in 2008, the quality of NHS care has plummeted because ministers failed to predict a massive rise in the birth rate among immigrant mothers.

‘Four in ten midwives questioned by the RCM said care was worse as a direct result of the rising birth rate – and it was putting mothers and babies at risk. Almost all – 91% – said the birth rate had shot up on their wards over the past few years, putting their units under intolerable pressure.’

The RCM’s general secretary Cathy Warwick said: ‘Let me spell it out simply and clearly. The RCM rejects absolutely the BNP’s assertion that immigration is a problem. It is not. This country has always been a country of immigration and the people who have come to this country over centuries have contributed to its success.’

She says that a great many midwives were born outside the UK and that without them the NHS would be ‘on its knees’. She points out that the rising fertility rate of women over 40 places extra demands compared to younger women, along with the increasing caesarean section rate and the welcome growth in the level of choice that women have over their care.

She adds: ‘The growing complexity and quality of maternity care are therefore the main reasons why pressures on the service are growing. Thankfully, all mainstream parties recognise this and there is cross-party support for more resources for maternity care to deliver the first-class service we all want. That is the approach that responsible political parties should be taking, not scapegoating foreign-born mothers for a failure to invest in more midwives and better facilities and choice for all women.

‘The RCM is an organisation that celebrates diversity and the richness it brings to our national life. We are committed absolutely to giving every woman, whatever her background and wherever she is from, care personalised and tailored to her.’

Royal College of Midwives

Kick out the BNP for good, says David Lammy

It's time for Britain to wake up. Have we really begun to imagine how we might feel on May 2 with BNP councillors in our towns and cities?

A poison in politics, spreading hatred and division. In the London elections, the BNP needs only five per cent of the vote to get a seat on the Assembly, eight per cent gets them two seats and 11 per cent means three.

The BNP threatens the progress this country has since I was growing up in the 1980s. Our proud history is of opposition to extremism.

In the 1960s my parents, like many others, came to Britain to rebuild homes, to drive trains and buses, or - like my mother - to staff the NHS. This year, as the health service turns 60, I lost my mother to cancer. What will become of her legacy of dedicated service to others, if bigots are elected? Are we really going to let the BNP have a say in our towns and cities today?

We are kicking extremism off our football terraces and out of our shops and factories. Let's kick it out of politics too.

Daily Mirror