Post by p***@gmail.comPost by p***@gmail.comFrom what you told, it sounds to me, in UK, there is no such law. Is it so? Or, do the Officers of Arms not know
such a law?
As far as I checked there have been many such laws and the law currently in effect seems
Equality Act 2010
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2010/15
Pt 2. Equality: key concepts -> Ch 2. Prohibited conduct -> 19 Indirect discrimination
To understand what is prohibited here, it may be easier to read web pages (so many pages
are there) explaining this, but in short, if an employer adds some condition which will
"weed out" certain group of people and if the employer "cannot show it to be a
proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim," then it will be a violation of law.
And as per the law the protected characteristics are "race" (here BAME for example),
"sex" (here female for example) and others.
Now, suppose I am an Officer of Arms and if one colored and aspirant woman without
"military experience" asks me, why that "military experience" condition exists, and
because of that she feels she is not eligible, theoretically, for me the possible answers
a) "No, we do not want colored nor woman to be our colleague. That's why."
b) "We are sorry we cannot disclose the reason."
c) "No, there is no connection between 'military experience' and our job. There is also no
reason for us to add the condition. We yet added it."
d) "We are sorry but we do want someone who has 'military experience' because it has
great advantage for our job in xyz..."
e) "Don't worry, it's in 'Highly desirable,' not 'Essential.' If you think you satisfy
other 'Highly desirable' conditions then you are enough eligible."
In reality, for me, I can choose the last two ones only.
Among what I mentioned, new business will be more d), and ceremony will be e).
In the last case also where "Highly desirable" is optional, in my understanding, there must
be some connection between "military experience" and heralds' job: since it's optional,
it works for increasing the number of applicants only, i.e., those who has only one of
the options can apply. And if "military experience" has nothing to do with heralds' job,
there is no benefit for heralds to chose someone who has "military experience" only.
(However, I am not sure, for optional condition, how much justification is needed and,
how much the fitness for splendor can be a good reason. Make it more splendid is a good
idea, but...? May be we should think things are always like d).)
I slightly simplified my discussion, but I believe those I did not mention are minor points.
Uemura Satoru
While this is doubtless what the writers of British anti-discrimination law intended, enforcing it that way is probably impossible. Judges do not understand the role as well as the denizens of rec.heraldry, which means the College can make up almost anything they want and the Judge will have no way to know it's wrong. If the College says that they prefer someone with military experience because military orders and parades are part of the job the Judge is likely to go along with it. Particularly since the white, upper-class, male, officer who got the job would probably be a combat veteran.
Which means Mr. Howarth could well be right. This could be a way to exclude certain people from the job without admitting it. It could also be the opposite: they've got an extremely-not-Protestant ethnic Pakistani guy (who speaks with a brutal working-class accent) they really want to hire. He's got a commission, and a glittering combat record, so when he gets hired the upper-class-twits won't be able to second-guess them.
Or it could be neither. Somebody at the College has decided to support the troops by hiring one. A strike against this theory is that they specified the person be a Commissioned Officer. Many Sergeant-level-people would be perfectly good heralds, but a Sergeant is an NCO, and therefore much more likely to be working class.
So I'm leaning towards "Howarth is right." But, depending on their ultimate decision, I am open to changing my mind.