Based on this report of an interview conducted by Trevor Phillips, Farage’s views on anti-discrimination legislation make no sense.
Asked whether there would be a law against discrimination on the grounds of race or colour under Ukip, Farage added: “No … because we take the view, we are colour-blind. We as a party are colour-blind.”
It isn’t really being ‘colour-blind’ to hold a rally of non-white supporters. And where is the logic in arguing that, because Ukip itself isn’t racist, there is no need for legislation to stop racial discrimination? Ukip has kicked out unambiguous racists – doesn’t he acknowledge that such people might occasionally allow their prejudices to affect how they treated employees? And sometimes discrimination can be subtle, indirect and unintentional.
Here’s a further excerpt from the interview from the BBC’s report:
Criticising recruitment laws, he said: “I think the employer should be much freer to make decisions on who she or he employs.
“I think the situation that we now have, where an employer is not allowed to choose between a British-born person and somebody from Poland, is a ludicrous state of affairs.
Leaving aside the many issues raised by these assertions – are employers really being forced by PC legislation to take on Poles against their will? – Farage’s use of the term ‘British-born’ is problematic. Many people are fully British, but not British-born.
He went on to explain:
“I would argue that the law does need changing, and that if an employer wishes to choose, or you can use the word ‘discriminate’ if you want to, but wishes to choose to employ a British-born person, they should be allowed to do so. … I think you should be able to choose on the basis of nationality, yes. I do.
It’s concerning, in the context of an interview in which he says he wants to scrap legislation against discrimination, that he should twice conflate ‘British’ with ‘British-born’, country of origin with nationality. This way of framing the binary, presumably unintentionally, implies that it should be seen as acceptable to choose a British-born candidate over one born in, say, Uganda, Pakistan or Jamaica.
