Modeller has got it exactly correct.
There is no passage in the Koran or the Hadiths that dictates that women should wear full face and boy coverings. Therefore, proclaiming that the wearing of the Burka is a religious necessity is simply untrue.
We live in a society where the wearing of a mask is considered impolite and 'bad-form' – it hinders communication (as demonstrated by the teacher who attended an interview without a face covering, subsequently attempted to teach her class wearing a face covering and who was then fired for doing so*), it is detrimental to law enforcement and it gives the impression that you have something to hide, ie. it spreads suspicion and therefore threatens social cohesion.
None of these characteristics confirms to the idea of British 'fair play'.
Those who argue that a ban is 'un-British' must be also understand that to be British is to play fair in the first place. Muslims who insist on wearing the Burka or who force others to wear the Burka are not being British in the slightest – they're being deliberately un-British and are either being hoodwinked or hoodwinking others into thinking that there is a religious necessity to wear this overt demonstration of the subjugation of women.
Emmeline Pankhurst must be turning in her grave.
*
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aishah_Azmi