In a recent failed employment tribunal against the Cabinet Office, and Simon Case as its head, the complainant claimed that “racism within the Cabinet Office appeared to be unrelenting and systemic”. These words are harsh, and if true, would have been a damning indictment of an important government department. But the complaint was withdrawn. As a former chairman of a public company, I can attest to the corrosive effect of modern labour law on both employee and employer. From both perspectives, it encourages poor behaviour in the moral sense. How so? In the tribunal involving the Cabinet Office, the employee had resigned and the Cabinet Office said that “no payment has been made, including in relation to the legal costs incurred”. But the situation concerning dismissals illustrates the wider problem. The law as it stands is that, if an employer dismisses an employee, the dismissal is deemed in law as either “fair” or “unfair”. Unless an employer follows scrupulous procedures, dismissal is automatically “unfair”. The use of the words “fair” and “unfair” is somewhat misleading, because they are legally defined, and may or may not represent most people’s judgment of what is actually fair or unfair behaviour. So “unfair” dismissal...