LAST WEEK BRITAIN’S “Minister for ommon Sense” proudly announced banning civil servants from wearing rainbow lanyards. Esther McVey’s latest offensive in her party’s war on Whitehall wokery was dead within 24 hours. The day following McVey’s Colonel Blimp speech, the Cabinet Office refused to issue specific guidance on lanyards, and distanced itself from McVey’s announcement in briefings to newspapers.
The episode perfectly encompasses the Conservative Party’s reaction to the total capture of the administrative state by their ideological enemies. First McVey’s target was ridiculous. LGBT lanyards are political; one conservative-minded civil servant I know wore a non-binary lanyard because he believed it would help his promotion prospects to show off how “diverse” he is to his colleagues. Most civil servants who wear these symbols do so as a virtue signal for their cause; it is a wink to their fellow LGBT activists that they are “allies”. However, these pieces of fabric are hardly the most pressing of issues when it comes to White-hall’s politicisation.
Trans activists’ language on gender is embedded into official government guidance, training, and signage. Critical Race Theory is taught by civil servants in diversity meetings; after the
