Scottish Parliament staff are facing new rules that state they are no longer allowed to wear accessories supporting social movements or campaigns while at work. The policy was instigated out of concerns that outward displays of personal beliefs or values could be misconstrued as impartiality when carrying out parliamentary duties. The new rules dictate that all staff must wear a uniform purple lanyard, which should be provided by the parliament, and all other accessories, badges and pins promoting social causes must be removed. MSPs and their staff are not affected.
The use of rainbow lanyards was introduced in 2017 by the Scottish Parliament after employees within the LGBT+ community voiced their wish to have them provided. This latest move was made as a result of last year’s incident in which a woman was expelled from a committee meeting for refusing to remove her suffragette scarf. A spokesperson for the Scottish Parliament explained the new rules would help prevent uncomfortable situations and individuals being perceived as making biased decisions.
There are still a few exceptions to the new policy. Staff will continue to be allowed to wear badges displaying their pronouns, and Poppies as part of Remembrance Sunday. Holyrood’s cross-party LGBT group co-convener, Jamie Greene MSP, has commented on the new rules, stating that it would be hard to establish what constitutes political or societal promotion. He said that this was a case of new identity politics that was further dividing people, adding that such mandates managed to achieve social unfairness and that everyone should be permitted to wear whatever felt familiar and inoffensive.
In conclusion, the Scottish Parliament has recently issued new rules that prohibit staff from wearing social campaign accessories. The rules arose from concerns that they could be interpreted as favouritism when carrying out parliamentary duties. From now on, all employees will be required to wear a standard purple lanyard and remove other badges or pins related to social campaigns. Exceptions to the mandate include pronoun accents and Poppies. This has sparked a level of controversy with some expressing views that the rules represent new identity politics that are divisive and unfair, further separating individuals instead of bringing them together
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