In the UK, about 100 postal workers are refusing to deliver leaflets from the British National Party. Their Labourite union is supporting them, of course, and is oh-so-outraged that they may have been threatened with being fired.
Heck, it is an outrage if they are not fired (after first being given a second chance to do their jobs). Who gave these workers and their union vetoes on free speech? Their job is not to censor political speech but to deliver the frickin’ mail. Or is free speech in the UK so endangered that postal workers and unions can suppress it at will?
By the way, rubbish like this only increases support for the BNP. Keep angering the electorate with more and more outrages against freedom – and Labourites are doing a great job of that – and more of the electorate will vote for the party which most caters to that anger.
similar issue in Vancouver in 2006 where a postal worker refused to deliver anti-gay pamphlets to a known gay neighbourhood. He was disciplined, but management decided to do the delivery themselves.
ReplyDeleteCanada Post is allowed to refuse certain materials for distribution - notably sexually explicit admail - but a postal worker will be disciplined if they don't deliver something that has been accepted for delivery.
I don't know that the postal workers in England should be fired over this but suspension or other lighter discipline is certainly warranted. A repeat of it should be met with termination of employment.
Having lived in England for about a year, this does not surprise me. I ran into so much police state type stuff, I was rightly disturbed by it.
ReplyDeleteThe kicker with this story that the article fails to mention, is that a lot of places have privatized the post office. So that in my mind raises the spectre of the post office not delivering mail for political reasons, and the government basically not being able to do anything about it.