As a recent university graduate entering the world of work, it’s almost impossible to find a job or career pathway that’s not infected by corporate wokery.
By corporate woke, I mean the professional obsession with ‘Diversity, Equity and Inclusion’ (DEI) initiatives, that essentially demonstrate a workplace’s ‘commitment’ to everybody other than straight white men.
Having started to apply for various private or public sector graduate trainee schemes, every single one involves me filling out a ‘monitoring form’.
Quite how my sexuality is relevant to my application to become a corporate legal secretary is beyond me.
And why should my race be a factor in my application to join the Civil Service Fast Stream?
I had thought that the obsession with the DEI agenda was finally being revealed for what it is - a corporate virtue signalling exercise that does more harm than good.
After all, it is riddled with problems.
The diversity, equity, and inclusion agenda divides people on the basis of their fixed group identities at the expense of their individual rights.
It separates them off into one of the ‘oppressed’ (i.e., racial, sexual, or gender minority) groups, or ‘oppressor’ (i.e. white, straight, men, Jewish) groups, pitting people against one another on the basis of nothing more than their group identity.
It prioritises this identity dogma over meritocracy, forcing entire organisations to focus on “equal outcomes” rather than “equality of opportunity”.
It is instinctively suspicious of any evidence or research that challenges its core claim that Western nations and white majorities are inherently ‘racist’.
It imposes speech codes and restrictions to stifle free speech, free expression, and a genuine diversity of opinions and beliefs in the workplace.
And, on top of all this, it has been shown in a growing number of studies to make people MORE likely to discriminate, or to breed resentment.
Training people about the highly contested and dubious concept of ‘white privilege’, for example, which is directly drawn from Critical Race Theory, has been shown to make elite white liberals LESS sympathetic toward struggling, working-class whites.
However, far from fading from view, my recent experience on the job market suggests this agenda remains completely dominant.
And as support for the kind of luxury beliefs like those spotlighted by DEI increases, standards are slipping through the floor, often at vast expense on the public purse.
The following examples across different workplaces and within the health and education sectors make this point.
It’s become easier than ever to be successful in getting on the Civil Service Fast Stream –mainly due to applications dropping by 45% in the last three years.
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Training is no longer the gold standard and has collapsed. Today, you don’t need more than a 2.2 degree to get onto certain parts of the scheme.
This is rather worrying alongside the recent finding that nearly-half of all first-class degrees in Britain cannot be explained, or that nearly one-quarter of students with three D-grades at A-level are now getting first-class degrees at university.
Nonetheless, it’s in this time that the Civil Service has become infamous for being completely ideologically captured by the most egregious and DEI initiatives there are.
Such as the fact that civil servants are allowed to spend their working time promoting politically activist staff networks, with one such network recently being given £200,000 of taxpayers’ money to spend on the LGBT organisation “a:gender” – who compare gender critical activists to the Ku Klux Klan!
This is insane.
If central government is bad, then local government is no better, spending millions on promoting luxury beliefs for the elite class at the expense of ordinary taxpayers.
Lambeth Council, where I live, just spent more than £25 million on climate and active travel projects since 2019, but is ranked worse than 90 per cent of all councils for failing to deliver basic public services, such as safeguarding vulnerable children and ensuring social housing is fit for purpose.
My bins haven’t been collected on time once since I moved here but, don’t worry, the council has still found the time to campaign on ‘the climate emergency’.
Or consider the education system, such as maths in Scotland. The Pisa report measures education standards among 15-year-old students worldwide, and the latest report reported ‘an unprecedented drop’ in performance, and shows a long term decline in Scotland in maths and science.
Rather than focusing on getting standards up, at a recent conference in Scotland, in 2023, education leaders were told the education system is ‘institutionally racist’.
And if you’re an ambitious teacher who wants to raise the standard of education in Scotland, don’t think of getting a job there unless you’re non-white.
A job advert for non-whites was posted recently in Glasgow advertising to non-white people only. Bear in mind Scotland is 95% white…
Yes, it is common for many DEI projects to actively endorse discrimination – against white men, the apparently acceptable kind of discrimination.
In 2017, the BBC opened an internship that was exclusively for non-whites. While making headlines then, it appears this kind of discrimination is mainstream today.
A recent tribunal, for example, found that an employer did NOT discriminate when they hired a woman over a man because they wanted to hire ‘fewer white men’.
Or take the NHS.
Clearly one sector worth exploring as a university graduate is DEI roles themselves (a starting salary of around £39,000, after all, is not to be sniffed at).
In 2022, the NHS advertised £700,000’s worth of diversity officers in just one month, despite waiting lists for operations being at a record high of seven million.
The same cash could have paid for six GPs, 19 nurses, and 20 paramedics, much like the amount of money we are squandering on our broken asylum system, estimated to be upwards of £7 billion each year, could fund yearly salaries for 200,000 nurses.
The DEI agenda is now a multi-million, if not multi-BILLION pound industry, fuelled by endless training courses on “anti-racism” and “allyship” which don’t work.
The most important thing a diversity officer must do is justify their own existence by pointing to “systemic racism” and sexism in the workplace.
Back in March, then chancellor Jeremy Hunt urged local councils to spend less on these diversity schemes, given many of them are effectively bankrupt.
An FOI project identified that around £30m was being spent across nearly 400 councils, or about £75,000 each on average.
Given the well-documented financial pressures local councils have been under for years, how can the sheer scale of this spending on the DEI agenda be justified?
These are just a few examples within the public sector of how the diversity, equity, and inclusion agenda has gone COMPLETELY mad.
With private sector firms like Google and Meta downsizing DEI programmes in the last year, and universities in America finally doing likewise, there is a glimmer of hope that things might be starting to change.
But then, look at my own generation, Gen-Z, the members of whom were born in the late 1990s and the early 2000s.
No less than 88% of today’s students say they consider a company’s commitment to DEI before deciding whether to apply to the grad scheme.
I wonder how that statistic will change when half the companies recruiting go bust because of DEI, or its internal contradictions become impossible to ignore.
As an ambitious and hard working young professional, I should be recruited on merit and my ability to do the job, nothing more or less.
This is what people like my parents and grandparents used to believe —that meritocracy not political dogma should guide the labour market.
I only hope that those ideas come back into fashion before it’s too late.
https://www.mattgoodwin.org/p/anonymous-zoomer-its-impossible-to ?
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Sexist judge quashes Mona Ladies Lounge tribunal decision that saw it shut down
Strange reasoning
In March, New South Wales' man Jason Lau brought an anti-discrimination case against Hobart's Museum of Old and New Art (Mona) after being denied entry to the lounge last year, and initially won in Tasmania's appeals tribunal.
But that decision has been quashed by Acting Justice Shane Marshall, and sent back to the tribunal for reconsideration.
He found the lounge was designed to promote equal opportunity for women generally, and so it could lawfully exclude men.
Acting Justice Marshall found the discrimination experienced by women was not just confined to the past, but occurs today as well, and so women should be able to create an "exclusive space" to create a "flipped universe".
"The correct approach … is to ask first whether the arrangement's purpose was to promote equal opportunity," he wrote.
"On the evidence, the unequivocal answer is 'yes' because the Ladies' Lounge was designed to provide women with an exclusive space where they receive positive advantage as distinct from the general societal disadvantage they experience."
'Celebration certainly due', curator says
Artist and Ladies' Lounge creator Kirsha Kaechele described it as a win for women.
"I'm very inspired by the occurrences in the courtroom today. In 30 seconds the patriarchy was smashed," she said.
"The verdict demonstrates a simple truth: Women are better than men."
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Duke Health Fires ER Doctor Who Questioned Racism Pledge
Duke University Health System fired Dr. Kendall Conger, an emergency room physician in its Raleigh, North Carolina hospital, for questioning Duke’s 2021 “pledge” against racism in medicine.
Conger stated his views in a May 2023 Martin Center article, “Duke Health’s Antiracist ‘Pledge’ is Not Guided by Science.”
Conger, a respected member of the medical community, did not object to standing against racism or treating people with decency and respect, primary tenets of the pledge. Conger questioned whether racism in medicine was as significant a problem as Duke claimed it to be and whether there was legitimate scientific evidence to support that belief.
In 2020, for example, Duke Health had gone so far as to declare racism “a public health crisis.”
Going Public a No-No
After years of being ignored and receiving information from Duke that was long on ideology and short on science and clinical data, Conger exceeded his employer’s tolerance.
In December 2023, Conger’s supervisor told him that the reason the institution was typically reluctant to engage him on its stances was his tendency to discuss those matters outside of the workplace. Conger was understandably puzzled that a prominent institution would take issue with challengers after it released its statement publicly and strongly defended it.
Conger immediately sent a letter to several of his colleagues informing them of the message he had received from his supervisor.
Duke Health notified Conger of his termination a few weeks later. Under the terms of his employment, Duke was not required to provide a reason. Duke, however, stated in a letter to Conger, “We believe your behavior is negatively impacting the emergency physician team, which could jeopardize the care of patients. Given this, we are choosing not to renew your contract for employment.”
Accused of Harming Patients
While failing to offer any specifics, Duke Health appeared to suggest Conger’s commitment to treating patients as individuals and rejecting the dynamics of collectivism could put patients in harm’s way, as could his observation of the lack of scientific evidence for Duke’s ominous claims about racism in medicine.
In his article, Conger said Duke is “guided by science” but its 2021 “antiracist pledge,” while well-meaning, was an unnecessary response to a popular political movement.
Duke employees had been briefed on the pledge before it was released publicly and were invited to contact their superiors with any questions or concerns. Conger’s trouble began when he decided to take his employer up on that offer.
Up the Chain of Command
Conger reached out to Duke Raleigh Hospital President Dr. Barbara Griffith and met with her in person. Also present at that meeting was a representative from the human resources department. Conger’s specific question was “Why is equity a better goal than equality?” Griffith did not respond to Conger’s follow-up emails related to that meeting.
Conger wanted to be sure he wasn’t being personally roped into a political position held by his employer. Duke never offered any scientific or clinical justification for the idea that racism is a significant problem in medicine.
That concerned Conger, who wanted to perform his job free from the shadow of politics or well-meaning but false social narratives. Conger specifically asked Duke brass why they believed it was beneficial to view patients as members of ethnic groups more than as individuals requiring care.
As a respected physician, Conger was particularly concerned about any ideas being presented as absolutes without accompanying clinical data or scientific proof. A Duke-employed doctor for 12 years, Conger had everyday professional experiences in the intense field of emergency medicine that were at odds with Duke’s claims about racism.
‘Implicit’ Bias Claimed
Duke’s antiracism pledge states, “We recognize our own implicit biases.” Ironically, by definition, one cannot recognize his or her own implicit biases as that phrase is traditionally defined. Before his notice of termination, Conger did at one point receive an email from a Duke official who said, “I concede that I cannot find a [clinical] trial that proves implicit bias is the cause of worse health outcomes for African Americans. Believe me. I have looked.”
Conger was astounded that the Duke official admitted to searching for supporting data after the institution created and publicly released its pledge.
The Duke official who corresponded with Conger mentioned “ample causal inference data in the social sciences.” Conger believes a medical institution should rely on evidence-based clinical data. Social science data are known to be easily manipulable and are generally viewed as inappropriate and insufficient for forming conclusions or driving actions in the field of medicine.
White Males Singled Out
Conger also recalls being shown an illustration during a Duke-sponsored function, that depicted white males as agents of oppression and exploitation while ominously labeling members of other demographics as “targets.” Again, no scientific or clinical data were offered to justify or explain why a major health care provider espoused such darkly generalized views of people.
While Conger is left to plan his next professional move, Duke Health—an arm of a Tier 1 research university and so-called Southern Ivy—has yet to explain its ominous claim that racism is “a public health crisis.”
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Australia: Why the ABC has come under fire after chilling detail emerged at pro-Palestine rally in Australia
The ABC has been slammed after failing to call out pro-Palestine demonstrators who were mourning the death of a leader of a listed terrorist organisation.
Thousands took to the streets in Sydney and Melbourne on Sunday to walk in support of Palestine and Lebanon, amid the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.
Small groups of young men, many masked, were seen at the rallies in each city waving the red and green flags of Hezbollah, a militant and political group hailing from Lebanon, which has been listed as a terrorist organisation in Australia.
Others, including both adults and children, held framed photos of Hezbollah's leader Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed by an Israeli air strike in Beirut on Friday.
The ABC covered the pro-Palestine rally in Sydney and released a two-minute report that included demonstrators mourning the death of Nasrallah.
The segment failed to mention how Hezbollah was listed as a terrorist organisation by the Australian government.
'He was the mother, he was the father of Lebanon,' one woman, who was wearing a hijab, said.
'He brought comfort, he brought security, when we really wanted answers we turned to him.’
Drew Pavlou, a political activist and prominent critic of China, accused the ABC on X of being 'embarrassingly biased' claiming the segment was filled with 'uncritical interviews'.
One social media user added: 'A new low'.
'We’ve been saying defund the ABC for ages,' a second chimed in.
'This is disgraceful!' a third wrote.
Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke blasted those showing 'any indication of support' for a terrorist organisation, and threatened to cancel their visas.
'It draws the immediate attention of our security agencies,' Mr Burke said.
'There is a higher level of scrutiny if anyone is on a visa. I have made clear from day one, that I will consider refusing and cancelling visas for anyone who seeks to incite discord in Australia,' he said.
Victoria Police told Daily Mail Australia they were 'aware prohibited flags were seen at a demonstration in the Melbourne CBD' on Sunday.
'Appropriate referrals will be made to Australian Federal Police as the lead agency concerning prohibited symbols,' a spokesperson said.
The group supporting Hezbollah were also heard chanting 'labayka ya Nasrallah' in Arabic, which translates roughly to 'at your service, Nasrallah'.
Rally organisers in Melbourne told AAP the group carrying Hezbollah flags was not affiliated with those running the demonstration.
Islamic community leaders also said this group was not representative of the Muslim community in Australia or the protest, which was calling for Israel to stop military operations in Gaza and Lebanon, where they are fighting Hezbollah.
'They are definitely a minority. An absolute, tiny minority,' Islamic Council of Victoria's president Adel Salman told The Australian.
'For my own experience, my knowledge of the community, there is no support of Hezbollah, no love of Hezbollah, right now, this is all about support for the Lebanese people.
Hezbollah, an Iran-backed political party and paramilitary group in Lebanon, was listed as a terrorist organisation by the Australian government in 2021.
It acknowledges that there are 'no known specific threats to Australia or Australian interests' posed by Hezbollah.
'However, it is possible that Australian interests could be harmed by future attacks,' the Australian government website states.
On Saturday, Israeli forces said Nasrallah had been killed during a massive air strike on Beirut, reportedly using 5,000-pound bunker-busting bombs.
Israel is currently fighting on two fronts, with the Hamas fighters in Gaza and the Iranian backed militia Hezbollah in Lebanon
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13905579/ABC-protest-coverage-pro-palestine-Hezbollah.html
***************************************************Austria's Freedom Party secures first national election win for far-right since World War II
Austria's Freedom Party has secured the first national parliamentary election victory for the country's far right since World War II, finishing ahead of the governing conservatives in the Austrian election race on Sunday.
Preliminary official results showed the Freedom Party finishing first with 29.2 per cent of the vote.
Chancellor Karl Nehammer's Austrian People's Party was second with 26.5 per cent. The centre-left Social Democrats were in third place with 21 per cent.
The outgoing government — a coalition of Chancellor Nehammer's party and the environmentalist Greens — lost its majority in the lower house of parliament.
Herbert Kickl, a former interior minister and longtime campaign strategist who has led the Freedom Party since 2021, wants to be chancellor.
"I am a mountain climber, but the bag that I have been given is not light," he told supporters.
But to become Austria's new leader, he would need a coalition partner to command a parliamentary majority. Rivals have said they will not work with Mr Kickl in government.
Opposition should 'sleep on the result' after far-right win, Kickl says
The far right has benefited from frustration over high inflation, the war in Ukraine and the COVID-19 pandemic. It has also built on worries about migration.
Austrian far right party was projected to take the historic election win.
In its election program — titled Fortress Austria — the Freedom Party called for "remigration of uninvited foreigners", for achieving a more "homogeneous" nation by tightly controlling borders and suspending the right to asylum via an emergency law.
The Freedom Party also calls for an end to sanctions against Russia, is highly critical of Western military aid to Ukraine, and wants to bow out of the European Sky Shield Initiative, a missile defence project launched by Germany.
Mr Kickl has criticised "elites" in Brussels and called for some powers to be brought back from the European Union to Austria.
"We don't need to change our position because we have always said that we're ready to lead a government, we're ready to push forward this change in Austria side by side with the people," Mr Kickl said in an appearance alongside other party leaders on ORF public television.
"The other parties should ask themselves where they stand on democracy," he added, arguing that they should "sleep on the result".
Mr Nehammer said it was "bitter" that his party missed out on first place, but noted he brought it back from lower poll ratings.
He has often said he would not form a coalition with Mr Kickl. After the poll he confirmed: "What I said before the election, I also say after the election."
More than 6.3 million people were eligible to vote for the new parliament in Austria, an EU member that has a policy of military neutrality.
Mr Kickl has achieved a turnaround since Austria's last parliamentary election in 2019. The Freedom Party narrowly won a nationwide vote for the first time in the European Parliament election in June, which also brought gains for other European far-right parties.
Dutch far-right leader Geert Wilders, whose party dominates the Netherlands' new government, took to X to congratulate the Freedom Party on Sunday. So did Alice Weidel, a co-leader of the Alternative for Germany Party.
The Freedom Party is a long-established force but Sunday's result was its best yet in a national parliamentary election, beating the 26.9 per cent it scored in 1999.
In 2019, its support slumped to 16.2 per cent after a scandal brought down a government in which it was the junior partner.
Then-vice chancellor and Freedom Party leader Heinz-Christian Strache resigned following the publication of a secretly recorded video in which he appeared to offer favours to a purported Russian investor.
While the Freedom Party has recovered, the popularity of Mr Nehammer's People's Party declined sharply compared with 2019. Support for the Greens, their coalition partner, also dropped to 8 per cent.
During the election campaign, Mr Nehammer portrayed his party, which has taken a tough line on immigration in recent years, as "the strong centre" that would guarantee stability amid multiple crises.
But crises ranging from the COVID-19 pandemic to Russia's invasion of Ukraine and resulting rising energy prices and inflation also cost it support. The government also angered many Austrians in 2022 with a short-lived COVID-19 vaccine mandate, the first in Europe.
But the recent flooding caused by Storm Boris that hit Austria and other countries might have helped Mr Nehammer slightly narrow the gap as a crisis manager.
Coalition plans still undecided
The Freedom Party would need to form a coalition with one or more parties to secure a parliamentary majority and build a stable government, but when party leaders held a discussion on Sunday evening, no potential partners were forthcoming.
Mr Nehammer repeatedly rejected joining a government led by Mr Kickl, describing him as a "security risk" for the country, but did not rule out a coalition with the Freedom Party itself — which would imply Mr Kickl renouncing a position in government.
But that looks very unlikely with the Freedom Party in first place.
The other three parties have long ruled out a coalition with the Freedom Party altogether — whether Mr Kickl led it or not.
Liberal NEOS leader Beate Meinl-Reisinger said: "I don't want you in government and I stand by that."
"I simply believe it would not be good for our country."
Social Democrats leader Andreas Babler ruled out governing with the far right and labelled Mr Kickl "a threat to democracy".
The alternative would be an alliance between the People's Party and the Social Democrats — with or without the liberal NEOS, who took 9 per cent of the vote.
A final official result will be published later in the week after a small number of remaining postal ballots have been counted, but those will not change the outcome substantially.
About 300 protesters gathered outside the parliament building in Vienna on Sunday evening, holding placards with slogans including "Kickl is a Nazi".
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Lawyer Lana Collaris faces heavy backlash after refusing to take part in Acknowledgement to Country
It's fundamentally racist
A top lawyer has hit back after being accused of racism for refusing to participate in an Acknowledgement to Country procedure at the Victorian Bar Council.
At meetings of the Victorian Bar Council, the president Georgina Schoff precedes matters with an acknowledgement of the Aboriginal group associated with the land on which it is held.
At a recent such meeting, barrister Lana Collaris instead acknowledged all Australians and then posted the minutes of the meeting on social media.
She was quickly met with a barrage of criticism, including being called a 'racist', a 'visitor' and an 'introduced species'.
Ms Collaris was also attacked by two Bar Council colleagues and was told by the Indigenous Justice Committee that she had brought the Victorian Bar into disrepute.
The under fire lawyer stood by her actions and told Sky News she could not tolerate the ubiquity of the Welcome to Country ceremonies.
'The reason why I decided to acknowledge all Australians that day is because I'd had enough of this implicit ceding of sovereignty before every meeting, before every Zoom meeting, before every time we land on a Qantas flight,' Ms Collaris said.
'I'd had enough and just wanted to take a stand against it.'
She said the implication of the welcome messages was that non-Aboriginal people are of a lesser status, and to say so was at odds with the law she had sworn to uphold.
'It's the constant repetition of this message that's being given to us, that sovereignty does not exist within the Crown in some way, and that's what I've got an issue with.
'It's wrong in law and it's wrong in fact as well and that's why I decided to make a stand.'
Ms Collaris said the response she got online was no surprise.
'I got fairly predictable personal attacks levelled towards me.
'And that's what made me think "I'm going to sit down and I'm going to express my views clearly in writing", and that's what I did.'
In that article, published by The Australian, she wrote that 'acknowledgments of country are not about respect but were part of a political agenda.
'We show respect to Indigenous Australians by celebrating their culture and language, by valuing their historical knowledge, and by holding them to the same standards as all other Australians, not by making ubiquitous acknowledgments of country.'
The barrister said Welcome to Country ceremonies go against 'the fundamental guiding principle of our constitution today (which) is the quality of citizenship.
'If you're going to take a stand that's different to that by making these repeated acknowledgements of country, which repeatedly chip away at that sovereignty, then I think Australians have an instinct and they know that something is not quite right and they understand that there is a political push behind this.
'For as long as people continue to make political statements by way of acknowledgments of country, I will continue to acknowledge all Australians, signalling my support for an Australia where we are all equal and subject to the same laws regardless of our race.'
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My main blogs below:
http://jonjayray.com/covidwatch.html (COVID WATCH)
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
https://australian-politics.blogspot.com (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://snorphty.blogspot.com (TONGUE-TIED)
https://immigwatch.blogspot.com (IMMIGRATION WATCH)
https://john-ray.blogspot.com/ (FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC -- revived)
http://jonjayray.com/select.html (SELECT POSTS)
http://jonjayray.com/short/short.html (Subject index to my blog posts)
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