The sinister absurdity of Westminster City Council

Westminster, the home of British politics, is a troubled place, and not just because of the politicians. It is the capital’s most crime-ridden borough, with thefts and muggings rampant around some of Britain’s most famous, and most secure, landmarks. Homelessness is on the rise. When I visit, it is hard to escape the pungent smell of weed or piss. 

So, the council must be busy? Why, yes, it is. Specifically, it is busy “achieving diverse shortlists to support our desire to increase the number of staff from underrepresented groups in our workforce”.

A new advert for an “Executive Assistant” — a “trusted lieutenant”, who should “use the tools at [their] disposal to keep … senior leaders focused and at their most effective” — informs us: 

We especially encourage applications from a Global Majority (GM), people who are Black, Asian, Brown, dual-heritage, indigenous to the global south, and or have been racialised as “ethnic minorities” (formally known as B.A.M.E, Black, Asian and multiple ethnic) background … 

As I have written before, “Global Majority” is a sinister, preposterous buzzword, growing more ubiquitous amid the groupthink of Blob-centric institutions. In its ostensible attempt to combat “marginalisation”, it marginalises white people — and not, one suspects, accidentally. It also has the ludicrous effect of bunching together everybody else, with their very different class and cultural implications. The term, as if this wasn’t enough, was invented by an “educationalist” with a conspiratorial obsession with the omnipresent power of “white elites” (replace “white” with other adjectives to see a problem here).

As I wrote, “This term should have no place in our discourse, especially in the work of state and tax-funded institutions. Question it before it’s everywhere.” Unfortunately, the Blob, in its supreme complacence, is resistant to questioning.

Language aside, it is worth reflecting on what a glaring insult it is that British people are facing discrimination in the political heart of their homeland. People whose ancestors fought and died for the country, and are memorialised across Westminster, are now considered lesser applications. 

Because they are facing discrimination. The advert continues:

… while the role is open to all applicants, we will utilise the positive action provisions of the Equality Act 2010 to appoint a candidate from a global majority background where there is a choice between two candidates of equal merit. 

No two candidates are really “of equal merit” (though their differences in merit might of course be hard to judge). This is just a slippery means of justifying selection on the basis of ethnicity, and, in doing so, tipping the scales against white people.

Still, it is at least a useful reminder — if reminders were needed — that the Conservatives spent fourteen years in government and did next to nothing to address Labour’s extensive system of equalities legislation. For almost a decade and a half, the Tories groused about political correctness and wokeism. Now, the council of the borough in which they should have been governing for those fourteen years is rationalising anti-white discrimination with reference to an act that preceded Tory governance. What a shameful indictment of their time in power.

Of course, no one should disagree with the goal of creating “a workplace where everyone feels valued, has a sense of belonging and is empowered to be their best”. How facing discrimination in your ancestral home is going to give you “a sense of belonging”, though, seems mysterious. I guess it is not supposed to. It is understandable that the desired skills include “the ability to demonstrate the use of tact and diplomacy in a politically sensitive environment”, meanwhile, but how pitting all ethnic minorities against the white majority demonstrates this “tact” is difficult to understand.

So, if you visit Westminster, do keep your phone in your pocket and try not to think too much about the bad smell or how your taxes are funding minoritarian discrimination.

Unless, of course, you were a prominent minister in the Conservative government, in which case I urge you to wave your phone around, and I hope you tread in piss.