By MARK NICOL
Last updated at 11:27 06 August 2007
A teenage science student has been banned from applying for a training programme with the Environment Agency because she is white and English.
The recruitment agency handling the scheme told Abigail Howarth, 18, that there was no point in her submitting an application because of her ethnic background.
But bizarrely she could have applied if she had been white and Welsh, Scottish or Irish.
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Turned down: Abigail Howarth
Abigail, who wanted to join the Agency's flood management programme, saw an advert in a local newspaper offering positions in the Anglia region where she lives, complete with a £13,000-a-year tax-free grant.
It made no mention of the ban on white English applicants, merely noting that candidates from ethnic minorities, such as "Asian, Indian' and "White Other, e.g. Irish, Welsh, Scottish', were encouraged to put themselves forward.
Abigail, of Little Straughton, Bedfordshire, said: "I was really disappointed. To be told being "White English" ruled me out in my home county shocked me. I know why there are positive action training schemes to assist those who are genuinely discriminated against but when it's broken down to this level it seems crazy to me.
"I really wanted to work for the agency and I was very excited - followed by feeling very disappointed.
"I would not have minded had I been beaten for the position by somebody better able than me."
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Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-473249/English-girl-barred-Government-job--wrong-kind-white.html#ixzz0VoNq0MOP
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