The whole race thing in the UK is rotten.

The daughter of a pommy mate of mine went to the UK to meet the relatives & look at where dad came from. She met a bloke, got married & stayed, silly girl.

She had been in a specialist position with the local county council for some years, when her husband got a better job in another county, & they moved. She went to see the new council with great references, looking for a job. She was told that although they needed people in her area, she would not be considered as they were far too much in excess of their quota of white English staff.

When she told them she was Australian it changed everything. As an immigrant she was in a different category, which was below quota, & she got the job. Her father telling me this said it made him even more thankful he had got out.

Foxy,

Your comment "the ETO had its reasons for doing what it did - and they underestimated the scandal that followed."

That the ETO cancelled 14 people with 20 years of regular employment with the ETO purely based on their race caused a scandal should not be a surprise to anyone.

FYI to you and Paul, seasonal contracts that are renewed frequently (in Aus for more than 4 years) are generally considered equivalent to permanent employment and termination needs reasonable justification.

If the musician could no longer play, termination could be reasonable. But summary dismissal based on race does not cut it. Imagine if the all-black orchestra fired 14 musicians to hire white musicians. Under the law they are identical.

SM,

Not all 14 had been part of the orchestra for 20 years, that is an exaggeration on your part. "Musicians are hired by the ETO as freelancers, so can be dropped from the opera season-on-season" This case was in England, no relevance to Australia. The ETO offered contracts for the 2022 season to 12 musicians who had not been part of the 2018/19 orchestra. If as I surmised the ETO used a "diversity" directive from the Arts Council as a cover to remove some of the substandard players, and replaced them with musicians based on merit, a poor way to operate, but it was in their authority to do so. Remember 14 went only 12 came in, all aged between 44 and 65, surprising.

SM, remember this is the English Touring Opera, and not the Liberal Party of Australia where old useless fossils and f/w like Kevin Andrews and 'Cry Baby' Porter want to find a taxpayer funded home for life.

Paul,

Some were employed 20yrs others for shorter but still long periods.

As for all the alternate realities you are trying to create, the ETO made it clear that the reason the 14 musicians' contracts were not renewed was that they were white. This was racist and illegal and the ETO members who did this should face the music.

Paul,

You couldn't find a more useless collection of airheads than the greens. Their entire agenda is to stop everything and at the fringe of politics, they have achieved virtually bugger all except get any coalition partners of theirs voted out of office.

What a bunch of retards and criminals.

Sm,

How can you say that about 'Terrific' Adam and 'Fabulous' Sarah just to name but two.

BTW, I see the Coalition practices "diversity", not only do they have a stack of white Old Farts, and a couple of token women in the party, they also have a beetroot coloured person in the ranks. What tribe does Bonking Barney belong to? The Purple People Eaters.