Subcultural engagement for the 21st Century...
Barbelith is a new kind of community (find out more)...
You can login or register.

Underground > Switchboard >

Postmen refuse to deliver "extreme" political party election leaflets

Whale... Whale... Fish!

20:41 / 02.06.04

Scotland on Sunday (Might have to register, but not sure)

I'm not sure what to make of it. Although I don't agree with the "extreme" parties, I'm don't think that censorship is the way to deal with them, especially censorship from the Royal Mail, but at the same time I fully sympathise with the posties, as I woulndn't particularly like to deliver BNP or Operation Christian Vote literature.

What are other people's views?

14:11 / 03.06.04

the BNP have not been stopped from giving their information out, they have merely been stopped using the royal mail.
it seems akin to barbelith refusing to allow posts that tom or the board as a whole find transgressive of the few rules we have.
the BNP are of course likely to be free to use any of the other distribution companies or even a private contractor.

i'd deliver them for forty quid per leaflet per house, for example.

14:31 / 03.06.04

sorry, on reading that article it seems i was previously misled.
the royal mail will actually deliver them at some point...

in which case, as long as they obey the terms of their contract, whats the problem? is the problem just the bad press it generates for these parties?

i mean, does i matter which postman delivers your mail for you, as long as it gets there?

Our Lady Has Left the Building

12:30 / 05.06.04

The problem is that Nick Griffin can now put out a press statement complaining about how the Government are trying to stop a 'legitimate political party' from doing 'legal things'. While the press may not like the BNP they won't give much effort into putting the truth of the situation across. The Royal Mail should stay out of things like this, if they refuse to not deliver something you or I find objectionable today, what's to stop them refusing to deliver something which they but not you or I object to tomorrow?

16:02 / 05.06.04

the royal mail is sticking by its obligations, one of which is an agreement with all employees to allow them to refuse to deliver anything they believe puts them at risk or conflicts massively with their conscience.

A Royal Mail spokeswoman[...]said: "Royal Mail has legal obligations, under the Representation of People Act, to deliver election material, so long as the material is legal. However, we recognise that staff may have strong feelings. We have always tried to have a flexible approach, so if an individual feels they are unable to deliver the material because of personal circumstances or beliefs, or where an individual believes delivery of a particular item may incur personal risk, alternative arrangements will be made."

the point being, all this means is that some postmen think abortion is okay and nick griffin is a twat. it has little to do with erosion of our overall freedoms, in my opinion.

what might make things interesting would be to have this go to court. on that so long as the material is legal point the RM spokeswoman makes; i havent seen the mail out... is there any chance it is illegal?

Ex

12:50 / 09.06.04

I'm getting increasingly interested in the duties of quasi-national organisations. The postal service has been partially deregulated (hasn't it?), so do they now have the ability to turn stuff down if they choose, as the BNP have other bodies who could deliver it? Or does the election issue mean that they have to make equal provision?

Whether or not Royal Mail have an independent policy on inciting racial hatred depends how you determine "offensive" - they specifically state they won't carry "Indecent, obscene or offensive material" (see whole list) but I assume the "offensive" is supposed to relate to the "obscene" and not to a wider, non-sexual category of "things that piss people off".

Otherwise, they don't seem to have any other independent regulations on content apart from whether something is legal or not ("Any other item prohibited by law"). The BNP flyer I received made links between street crime and asylum seekers but seemed to be worded so as to be suggestive and encourage the reader to infer links.