Saturday 23 July 2011

#UKIP and so called "Ban the Burka" - debunked.

The claim that UKIP want to 'Ban the Burka' comes up now and then - I wanted to blog to clarify this once and for all!

In the UKIP 2010 general election manifesto there was a policy to do two things:
1) Ban face coverings in government buildings.
2) Allow private companies to enforce face covering bans equally.

The first was based on security (allowing CCTV to record people accurately) and for effective communication (i.e. between staff and public, teacher and student etc).

The second was for instances such as banks where they could require people to remove motorcycle helmets etc, but could not ask for religious face coverings to be removed. The policy would have allowed everyone to be treated equally.

It wasn't a major policy, and I wouldn't have bothered to have it in the manifesto. But that is what it was, not a 'Burka ban'.

As a libertarian I don't think it is the states business what someone chooses to wear (or not wear) outside of protecting others safety - roll on the naked bike ride, naked rambler etc.

If women are being forced to wear burkas against their will, they need to be helped and empowered, not attacked from the other side too!

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