socialist environmental alliance header

Vote for an SEA candidate

Index

S. E. A. Statements

High Court ruling about civil servants standing for election

Sunday 20th June 2004

The High Court will be asked today (Monday) to strike down a rule barring civil servants from standing for election in the North.

Lawyers for Ryan McKinney will argue that civil service chiefs were wrong to tell him he'd be sacked if he stood in last November's Assembly election. The Child Support Agency worker had been selected as Socialist Environmental Alliance (SEA) candidate for West Belfast.

McKinney's lawyers will argue that the sacking threat was in breach of his right to political expression under human rights legislation.

In November, McKinney failed in a court bid to have the ban set aside so that he could stand. However, the court declared that he had a substantial argument and that the case should go to the full hearing which will open this morning.

Said a SEA spokesperson yesterday: "In theory, the point of the rule is to maintain civil service neutrality. But the guidelines across the water are far less strict. The overwhelming majority of those affected in the North have no function whatever in making or interpreting policy. The ban is another example of the ultra-conservative way Northern Ireland is run.

"The jobs of of the vast majority of those affected are considered so unimportant that they are up for privatisation. But when it comes to elections, suddenly they are highly sensitive.

"Meanwhile, the blatant pro-establishment bias of the top bosses at the NIO continues.

"The fact that Ryan was prevented from standing in November had a damaging effect on the SEA. He was one of three endorsed candidates---which would have entitled us under arbitrary BBC guidelines to inclusion in party political broadcasts. As soon as he had to withdraw, the broadcasting authorities aped their fellow-conservatives at the NIO and kept the SEA off the air.

"There is a good case for insisting that in the civil service, as in public broadcasting, there should be neutrality at the levels where policy is made. But in fact, it's at these levels that's there's no neutrality at all, while the people at the bottom are ordered under pain of the sack to stay silent."





SEA Logo

Software error:

DBI connect('sitestatistics','sitestatistics',...) failed: Access denied for user 'sitestatistics'@'localhost' (using password: YES) at /home/socialiorg/public_html/cgi-bin/sea/DbUpdateLog.pm line 46

For help, please send mail to the webmaster (root@localhost), giving this error message and the time and date of the error.