Another ‘bastion of conservatism’ is captured by woke ideology

Whole areas of our national life are now in thrall to the dogma of hyper-progressivism – and it’s impeding the fight against racism

Photo: Sameem Arif / Wikimedia Commons

I have never known a time when there was so little trust and confidence in our national institutions, professions and media. This is partly, I am sure, because many people detect across these spheres a tangible sense of decline and can see that they are increasingly ineffective at doing the things we expect of them. But it is also undeniably the consequence of their having in many cases been captured by the ideology of hyper-progressivism and turned into propaganda machines for that creed in a way that serves to alienate millions who simply don’t subscribe to it. 

Wherever one looks, whole areas of our national life – the civil service, police, judiciary, armed forces, the BBC, Church of England, and more – that once reflected and championed long-time social and cultural norms now peddle the ‘values’ of militant wokery. Even private schools and Pall Mall men’s clubs have joined the crusade.

The extent to which no entity – not even supposed bastions of conservativism – is immune from ensnarement by this fringe and unrepresentative dogma was illustrated in a post that did the rounds on social media a few days ago, and which featured a screenshot taken from the website of what was once considered to be pillar of establishment orthodoxy. In fact, so far-out was the content, I initially thought it was a parody. But it turns out it wasn’t. It was authentic.