The Cabinet Secretary has been warned by senior civil servants of a “woke takeover of Whitehall” that risks “improperly” influencing Government policy.
Simon Case was told in a letter signed by 42 staff from 16 departments that ideology on gender promoted by trans activists has become embedded in the Civil Service in a “significant breach of impartiality”.
It says the concept that “everyone has a gender identity which is more important than their sex” is “treated as undisputed fact”.
Staff who dare to air gender-critical views – meaning they believe there are two biological sexes that cannot be changed – suffer “serious harassment” at work and live with a “pervasive fear” they will be victimised, the letter adds.
As a result, it says, the operation of government is being “distorted” and the authors plead for “urgent action to ensure that Civil Service impartiality is upheld, and freedom of belief is respected”.
The Civil Service’s head of human resources has met some of the signatories to discuss their concerns, but the letter – along with extensive evidence of the way highly contentious beliefs are promoted in numerous Whitehall departments – has been leaked to The Telegraph amid complaints that the response has been inadequate....
The letter states: “Many of us have experienced some form of professional disadvantage because we do not believe that the concept of gender identity is meaningful, or that it is more important than sex. Several of us have been through stressful and intrusive employment disputes.”
A signatory of the letter told The Telegraph: “There has been a widespread woke takeover of Whitehall that our most senior officials have swallowed hook, line and sinker”.
The letter states that the culture in the Civil Service “distorts the operation of government in many ways, and it is reasonable to be concerned that it could improperly influence government policy”.
It's the Stonewall effect.
Cabinet ministers have long been concerned about bias in the Civil Service when it comes to gender politics. In 2021, the then equalities minister Liz Truss ordered Whitehall departments to withdraw from a controversial “diversity champions” scheme run by the charity Stonewall following accusations that it was promoting extreme ideologies.
In turn, the Civil Service has set a goal of becoming the most inclusive employer in the UK, in order to “attract, develop and retain the most diverse talent”.
It is highly unusual for civil servants to write directly to the Cabinet Secretary with their concerns, and even more unusual for such letters to become public knowledge.
Documents shared with The Telegraph show staff have been asked to undergo training that says biological men can use female-only facilities and to avoid gendered language such as the phrase “mum and dad” in some circumstances for fear of causing offence.
In departments struggling with inflationary pressures and backlogs caused by the pandemic, civil servants are being encouraged to spend their time attending courses or watching videos that promote LGBTQ+ “allyship”...
From an anonymous civil servant:
I work as a civil servant for a major government department and I am part of what I believe is a silent majority being bullied into accepting the wholesale adoption of gender identity ideology.
Freedom of speech does not exist for anyone whose personal or religious beliefs clash with the official version of reality, or for women who might have been victims of sexual assault and object to sharing women-only spaces with biological males.
Instead, those who exercise their legally protected right to gender-critical views – the belief you cannot change your biological sex – are: accused of bigotry and hate; compared to racists; and harassed or actively silenced, usually by having their views ignored.
Having started through staff networks, which are diversity groups set up by civil servants, and HR, gender ideology has become embedded right across the Civil Service with the connivance or cowardice of senior leaders who seem genuinely scared of this issue.
Even the Women’s Network has been replaced by the “Gender Equality Network” which promotes the notion that our biological sex is an “identity” rather than an immutable characteristic.
The result for the country at large is that impartiality and objectivity – both core Civil Service values – are being lost, and in their place is one side of a heavily contested social and political issue that is presented as fact.
If a complaint is made to articulate a concern about the inclusion of men in groups that relate specifically to female biology – such as the menopause – the complainant is dismissed as failing to understand diversity and inclusion, accused of misgendering, encouraged to educate themselves by reading approved policies or will even receive veiled threats that they will be reported to their manager.
Senior civil servants say nothing to challenge the bizarre and offensive ideas that are presented as fact. My guess is that they are as intimidated as everyone else from expressing a heretical viewpoint....
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