""The dilemma I have is: should members of avowedly racist organisations be allowed the freedom to police black people, teach black kids, look after elderly and infirm black people and so on? Can we trust them to do the job fairly, to the best of their ability and to give their black clients/pupils/patients etc the same quality of service and care they would give their white counterparts?""

Manitas, I think, has the right of it.If these types get into policing, teaching, or similar positions, surely someone will notice that an inappropriate situation has arisen, when their political affiliations come to override the professional requirements.

I do tend to regard religious fundamentalists in the same light as political extremists, but surely they have to be treated as individuals and dealt with in response to what they do, not what they believe.

This argument has been played out before in respect of homosexuals, and there seems to be (with a few exceptions) a consensus that, unless they try to convert others, there is not much of a problem, and, given that I have yet to meet a proseletysing gay, I have no problem with that.

Banning groups for their beliefs is supposed to be one of the things this country stands against. I for one don't want to see that change, unless there is a much more compelling reason than the destruction of a political movement that is more an object of derision, than a credible threat.

Dijit