I'm a little surprised that robmiller has been jumped upon like he has in this thread so far, personally I think that he has made some succinct and pertinent points. Working in the medical profession, I absolutely and especially agree, of course, that the standard of patient care is of utmost importance. This goes without saying.
Energize said:
Being anti-immigration doesn't affect your ability to do a job.
This is true. However in a field such as nursing, views such as this, as well as other sentiments that have been voiced by the BNP,
may affect the standard to which this particular job is performed, not simply whether it is done or not. I have no proof of this of course, however there is evidence, as well as being common sense, that the standard of care received by patients in hospital affects their outcome.
I do not personally agree that nurses who are members of the BNP should be banned from their profession. This is because I see standards of nursing varying from awful to wonderful all the time, and it would be impossible to pinpoint low standards as resulting from political leaning, rather than say, basic laziness or incompetence. It is also unfair to assume that membership with the BNP is certain to affect one's performance.
However it is just as foolish to dismiss any actual bias as being irrelevant as it is not. Maintaining a
standard of care requires impartiality, but membership with the BNP brings such impartiality into question, especially from a general public perspective I would think.
The point of positive discrimination is that it is controlled, temporary, and has positive consequences before ultimately making itself redundant. You want to retain an uncontrolled, permanent, negative discrimination because for some stupid reason you think that all discrimination is bad.
