Staff networks

them especially unpleasant or professionally dangerous to be around. These networks could be the most vocal within any government department, mainly because they believed that they had lessons to teach everyone else about their own “mental health”. As such, they tended to elevate the most malign and narcissistic individuals into moral authorities within their workplaces.

It will be difficult to prove the precise level of influence that LGBTQ+ networks had over senior officials in government, and over clinicians within the NHS, during the controversy over “gender affirming care” (hormone blockers and the removal of health body parts) during the decade while that debate was in contention in the UK. But throughout that time, scepticism toward gender ideology was framed by these groups as if it were a threat to the safety of staff. It’s known that the LGBTQ+ network within the BMA attempted to attack the methodology of the Cass Review, and that officials attempted to block Kemi Badenoch while she was Secretary of State for Women and Equality from meeting with gender critical campaigners. It is important to remember that every single decision made, and each piece of policy advice issued by officials, was done in an atmosphere in which groups like this wielded real influence over people’s careers.

It's the familiar story of efforts to help the less fortunate taking over and becoming the tail wagging the dog. 

Prompted by stories like this:

Warwickshire County Council's LGBTQ+ staff group has warned of the "deeply unsettling" effect of not guaranteeing that the Pride flag will be flown at the council headquarters in the future.

The council's new leader, Reform UK's Councillor George Finch, wanted the Progress Pride flag taken down before the end of Pride month in June but chief executive Monica Fogarty refused.

For people like Fogarty here, keeping the Pride flag flying is a hill they're ready to die on.

What this all means is that in organisations like the police, or the NHS, or the Civil Service – or the BBC – the people who rise to the top now are not so much those who've proved their capability and leadership skills, but those who've embraced the latest shibboleths about inclusivity and so on with the most enthusiasm: those who came top in the Stonewall seminar tests and were loudest in their commitment to the LGBTQ+ cause.

In other words, as we've seen recently – especially with the police – the people at the top may well be idiots.