A Victory For Common Sense

Oh well, it is New Year's Day morning, and I thought I'd have a quick glance at the newspapers on line. I was hoping things might be a little different, a good start hopefully to this brand new year. And then I came across this article, here are some snippets:

A park ranger sacked for asking a black colleague if he 'put polish' on his legs has won £40,000 compensation after a judge ruled that skin colour is a 'fact of life'.

Michael Farmer said he was branded racist and even falsely accused of being a member of the British National Party after making the comment.

Lambeth Council sacked him under its 'zero tolerance' policy on racism after two disciplinary hearings.

But employment judge Lindsay Hall-Smith has ruled that he was unfairly dismissed, saying: '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.'

The judge, sitting at the Croydon Employment Tribunal, described how an incident on May 7, 2008, had led to the dismissal of 52-year-old Mr Farmer.

He said there was 'a significant amount of banter exchanged between the staff about a black member of staff, Dwight Parker, who had arrived at work wearing shorts for the first time in the year'.

The judge said the switch to shorts 'usually provoked humorous comments', and one woman, Diane Nash, even wolf-whistled at Mr Parker when he arrived.

Mr Parker claimed he heard Mr Farmer say: 'Dwight, what are you doing putting polish on your legs?'

When he realised that Mr Parker was 'not the least amused by his comment', Mr Farmer followed it up by saying: 'Well, I have to use sun tan lotion if I want a tan.'

About time we had some common sense from these tribunals. It might put an end to all that tip-toeing of white people around ethnic minorities, the dreading of saying the wrong thing, or to be more precise, the dreading of those words being misinterpreted either through the wish for financial gain, or just plain ignorance of the dominant culture. As it will cost you your job and your reputation, and quite possibly a criminal record.

If ethnic minorities want to know why white people often seem a little distant, a little stand offish and hard to get to know, just think about what I've just said, maybe it isn't racism after all. Maybe you just better stop running to your boss or tribunals at the drop of a hat, and grow some thicker skin, no matter what colour it is?

Mr Farmer, a married father of two from Catford, South-East London, carried on working for four months but was finally fired after a second disciplinary hearing chaired by council official Kyron Peters-Bean, whose title is Head of Resilience, in September 2008.

Its report concluded that 'the most concerning aspect of the investigation' was claims by two other rangers that 'this was not the first time Michael Farmer had made statements of this nature'.

But the employment tribunal found no evidence that Mr Farmer had made racist comments before.

The judge said: 'The tribunal found it disturbing that the prejudicial conclusions of the investigatory process appeared to be founded upon allegations which had never surfaced during the interviews.'

The tribunal found that Mr Peters-Bean was not a 'convincing' witness and was 'evasive' when cross-examined about how much he had taken into account Mr Farmer's alleged membership of the BNP.

The judge said: 'We were driven to the conclusion that the disciplinary hearing failed to maintain an objective approach to the serious allegation against the claimant.

'The disciplinary panel had made up its mind that the claimant was going to be dismissed. . . and failed to give any consideration to any other sanction.'

Mr Farmer, who has previously set up a black youth community football team, said the idea he was racist 'was the antithesis of what I stand for'.

''What chance do I have as a middle-aged man getting another job in a recession?'

Article Here

I think it is quite clear that an example was to be made of Mr. Farmer, he was to be sacrificed on the alter of multiculturalism regardless of the consequences for him, or his family.

This was nothing short of a witch hunt, a few centuries ago he would have undoubtedly been burned at the stake for heresy on the same kind of trumped up charges. In fact the way things are going it may go that way once again.

We may not have a Witch Finder General any more, but I can assure you that there are many many Head's of Resilience like Mr. Kyron Peters-Bean and other weirdly titled persons; it is exactly the same practice, but under a different title and for a different cause.

This totally inept jobsworth, and some would say vindictive Head of Resilience has just cost the tax payer £40,000 and a good man and his family months of anguish, I hope that Lambeth Council will now do the right thing and dismiss him, as if they don't it might be construed that they were complicit in this deceit and persecution, which does not bode well for public confidence, or for those much vaunted Community Relations.