Last week, the House of Lords ruled in the case of McConkey v The Simon Community, concerning the Northern Irish law against discrimination on the grounds of political opinion. Lord Rodger of Earlsferry, with whom three other Law Lords agreed, held that a statutory exclusion of political opinions supporting the use of violence meant that it would be wrong to construe the meaning of “political opinion” so that such opinions would not even get over the first hurdle. To do so would make the statutory exception redundant. However, had no such exception been provided, such a construction would be permissible.

This decision may become important in England, Wales and Scotland too if the current protection for religious and philosophical beliefs is interpreted so as to include political opinions. The approach of their Lordships is not quite the same as that of the Employment Appeal Tribunal in Ladele, where the reason for alleged discriminatory treatment was considered to be simply a matter of causation, in which beliefs are protected but manifestations of those beliefs are not. Rather, Lord Rodger states that support for violence falls within the ordinary meaning of a political opinion, in the same way as would opposition to violence, but it could be excluded on the grounds of public policy, because the opinion is an “obnoxious” one. This reasoning would permit other political opinions to be excluded from protection, particularly those contrary to the purpose of anti-discrimination legislation, such as racist or homophobic opinions.

Personally, however, I hope that this situation will never arise. The explanatory notes to the new Equality Bill suggest that political opinions do not count as religious or philosophical beliefs and this must be correct. In my view, those commentators who worry about employers dismissing socialists are just missng the point. The purpose of employment law is not to prevent employers from ever acting unreasonably and, if it were, the economy would grind to a halt. Instead, it protects people from unfair dismissal, which would include almost every dismissal on the grounds of political opinion, hair colour or choice of football club, and from discrimination, which is restricted to those grounds for which there is perceived to be a serious social problem. Parliament had decided that discrimination on the grounds of political opinion is a serious social problem in Northern Ireland but not elsewhere in the UK and this is a reasonable conclusion. Even if it were not, it would be for them and not the courts to amend the law.