THE BURLINGTON, THE BNP AND “CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY”

24-04-2008

After reading our revelation that Birmingham's Burlington Hotel had "no problem" with hosting BNP meetings, one reader - let's call him Cheggers - contacted the head office of MacDonald, the company which owns the place.  He discovered it was fine by them too - despite their commitment to "Corporate Social Responsibility".

In case you new to the story, here’s a quick recap; on Sunday the far-right party booked a function room at the Burlington.

On the same day, at the same hotel, the head of the Commission for Equality and Human Rights, Sir Trevor Phillips, stood up to deliver a key-note speech on immigration and diversity, to mark the 40th anniversary of Enoch Powells “Rivers of Blood” speech (see link here).

When The Stirrer tried to find out whether the hotel knew a booking had been made by the BNP, the Burlington was evasive; but they made it abundantly clear that they would happily accept a booking from them again (see link here).

As a regular reader of the site, and as a concerned Birmingham citizen, I was shocked at their cavalier attitude, so I did a bit of digging.

I discovered that The Burlington is part of a chain of over 40 hotels owned by the MacDonald Group around the UK. The company says on the “Corporate Social Responsibility” section of its website that:

"As a hotel company, people are the very heart of our business - whether it is investing in our staff, or providing excellent customer service and positive experiences for our guests.   We take our responsibilities towards them - and towards the communities in which we operate - very seriously."

Given this, and the provocation that booking a meeting of a far right party which preaches a mantra of division - on the same day as one of the leading figures in the debate on community cohesion was due to speak in the same hotel - I thought I’d alert the company to what happened, and give them the right of reply.

I wanted to know whether they thought it was acceptable for one of their establishments to accept a booking from a party aligned to the far right.

This is what MacDonald Hotels Group had to say in a statement last night:

"It is not company policy to comment on any leisure or business guests without their prior consent. Any queries regarding a conference or event at our hotels should be directed to the event organisers in the first instance.

"Macdonald Hotels is a high quality hotel group, which prides itself on customer service. As an equal opportunities organisation, we neither discriminate in the workplace nor with our guests and clients.

"As a responsible venue we merely ask that during events, our clients' activities do not contravene the laws and legalities outlined by the company and expect them to adhere to a code of conduct whilst in our properties." 

Whilst everyone has the right to free speech, is this “Corporate Social Responsibility”? Or does it smack of “turning a blind eye”?