How DEI got out of control

A once-worthy crusade to overcome prejudice has mutated into a social cancer

Photo: Tony Webster, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Much commotion has accompanied the publication of new sentencing guidelines for England and Wales which appear to discriminate against plain old white Christians.

Politicians and commentators alike – including the justice secretary, Shabana Mahmood, herself – have expressed their shock and alarm at the guidelines. But is their surprise really justified? After all, the precepts of ‘diversity, equity and inclusion’ (DEI), which assuredly will have informed the new guidelines, are now ubiquitous, infecting our public institutions and leading corporations from top to bottom. DEI is the national religion, and any deviation from it ranks as heresy.

So while to outsiders – by which I mean the mainstream millions living ordinary lives up and down the country – this kind of stuff is genuinely troubling, to those in the upper echelons of politics, public services and business, it is all quite routine.

Anyone doubting that fact might like to consider that, for all the apparent outrage from those inside the SW1 bubble, the new sentencing guidelines were partly influenced by recommendations contained in a 2017 report by David Lammy, now the foreign secretary, and given the stamp of approval by the Tories when they were still in office. Moreover, one of Mahmood’s own departmental officials was reportedly in attendance at the meeting at which the guidelines were agreed but raised no objection. There is, in fact, scant evidence that, until the shadow justice secretary, Robert Jenrick, spotted an opportunity to give the government a kicking, anyone in authority within politics or the justice system thought the guidelines in any way controversial.

In fact, I am sure that most people in public life generally would have been entirely unperturbed by the guidelines. These people are rarely concerned by the implementation of DEI measures, no matter how harebrained. I know this partly because I have worked in the public sector (in the fire and rescue service) for nearly three decades and, for a substantial period of that time, operated as senior trade union official. So I got to see DEI – the initiatives, the campaigns, the diktats – up close. I witnessed how what started out – ostensibly, at least – as a worthy crusade designed to eradicate prejudice mutated into a monster that devoured all that stood in its way.

I began to understand how this shift took hold after an enlightening conversation with a senior manager in my own industry. As part of his role, this person was required to chair meetings of his employer’s DEI committee. This was a standing committee which met at least once a month. The employer, determined to demonstrate its progressive credentials, placed a very high value on the committee and its works.