Wednesday 3 August 2022 10:16 PM Ditch the woke 'witch trials': Attorney General Suella Braverman hits out at ... trends now

Wednesday 3 August 2022 10:16 PM Ditch the woke 'witch trials': Attorney General Suella Braverman hits out at ... trends now
Wednesday 3 August 2022 10:16 PM Ditch the woke 'witch trials': Attorney General Suella Braverman hits out at ... trends now

Wednesday 3 August 2022 10:16 PM Ditch the woke 'witch trials': Attorney General Suella Braverman hits out at ... trends now

The Attorney General today launches a fightback against woke ‘witch trials’.

Suella Braverman brands the diversity industry a ‘new religion’ in which zealots seek to punish unbelievers while others are too scared to speak out.

In an article for the Daily Mail, she reveals she has scrapped equality training in her department after learning that staff had spent almost 2,000 hours on the courses last year.

They were being given lectures on ‘micro-incivilities’ and ‘how to be a straight ally’.

Mrs Braverman, who stood for the Tory leadership last month, says it is ‘downright dangerous’ for Whitehall lawyers to be taught they cannot challenge anyone who says they have been offended by a particular phrase.

‘This does nothing to create solidarity and support but rather keeps emphasising difference, creating a sense of “other” and pitting different groups against each other,’ she writes.

Attorney General Suella Braverman, 42, says she has cancelled equality training in her department after discovering her staff had spent 2,000 hours in Stonewall lectures

Attorney General Suella Braverman, 42, says she has cancelled equality training in her department after discovering her staff had spent 2,000 hours in Stonewall lectures 

Ms Braverman warned against the dangers of diversity zealots - using the example of Maya Forstater, who won an employment tribunal case last month over her ‘gender-critical’ views

Ms Braverman warned against the dangers of diversity zealots - using the example of Maya Forstater, who won an employment tribunal case last month over her ‘gender-critical’ views

Her forthright comments come amid growing concern over the influence of Left-wing identity politics – particularly in the public sector – and the intolerance shown to those challenging the new orthodoxy.

Mrs Braverman cites Maya Forstater, who won an employment tribunal case last month over her ‘gender-critical’ views, asking: ‘How did we get to the place where stating the facts of biology can get you sacked?’

In another legal ruling last week, barrister Allison Bailey was found to have been discriminated against by her legal chambers after she commented online about ‘trans extremism’.

Meanwhile, police continue to question and even arrest people for supposedly causing offence and anxiety through their social media posts and major organisations including the Bank of England remain signed up to lobby group Stonewall’s diversity champions scheme despite ministers speaking out against it.

The Attorney General praises the efforts of Tory leadership frontrunner Liz Truss in trying to turn the tide after she branded ‘unconscious bias’ training a waste of time and pledged to ditch diversity roles in the public sector.

Mrs Braverman writes: ‘In government, I’ve seen her working hard to fight this pernicious identity politics, which is stifling our potential just as surely as the high tax burden. I’m especially glad she’s committed to scrapping diversity jobs across Whitehall. Britain needs a lot of things but it certainly doesn’t need woke commissars policing our thoughts.’

Just last month the Attorney General ordered officials in the Government Legal Department, which employed 2,769 people in 2021-22, to tell her what diversity training was being carried out. She was furious to discover that 1,900 hours of courses had taken place – much of it carried out by external, paid-for consultants – teaching the ‘Left-wing view on race, gender and sexuality’ to staff including 600 lawyers. In one lecture, employees were told: ‘Not being racist isn’t enough, we must be anti-racist.’

A slide said that if a black person tells you that a phrase is offensive to them then it is and added: ‘It is not up to you as a white person to tell them that it’s not. Instead, educate yourself as to why the phrase is offensive and stop using it.’

In a session on being an ally to LGBT people the civil servants were urged to ‘recognise your privilege and transfer the benefits of it to others who lack it’.

Mrs Braverman, who is the Government’s chief legal adviser, is said to have been ‘absolutely furious’ that taxpayers’ money was ‘wasted’ on the instruction ‘when it could have been spent on more lawyers or literally anything else more useful’.

After telling her officials to scrap the training, she is urging other ministers to scrutinise the courses taking place in their departments.

‘We really must get serious about taking on this divisive mindset and call it out: a new religion with a new priestly caste,’ she writes today.

The Attorney General compares diversity ‘zealots’ to ‘the witch-finders of the Middle Ages’.

She says some believe in the cause and ‘don the outfit of the inquisitor and never tire of rooting out unbelievers’ but others simply ‘wear the priestly clothes to ward off their rivals’ or ‘nod along and recite the creed because they are too scared to dissent’.

Mrs Braverman concludes: ‘We need to worry less about what people say on Twitter, and more about ensuring passports arrive on time, GP appointments are available when needed,

read more from dailymail.....

NEXT In news vacuum, rumours and concern swirl over Catherine mogaznewsen