I’ve written an op ed piece for today’s Mail on Sunday about the British Council. Sad to say, but an organisation that was once an effective instrument of soft British power has succumbed to the anti-patriotic self-loathing of the metropolitan elite. Here’s how the piece begins:
Few will be surprised to learn that an organisation funded by the British taxpayer once issued a ‘non-discriminatory’ language guide that urged its staff not to refer to ‘Brits’, or use the phrase ‘the Queen’s English’. The reason the latter was “problematic”, we were told, was that “it implies that these varieties of English are more correct or of greater importance than others”.
What may have come as a shock, though, is that the document – which could be called ‘How To Speak Woke-ish’ – was produced by the British Council, whose purpose is to promote Britain’s values and culture across the world.
Not only does it have a budget of £1.2 billion a year and employ 7,000 people, but it received a Royal Charter in 1940 – and its patron is Her Majesty the Queen.
It seems this public body, like so many others, has succumbed to the anti-patriotic self-loathing that is so prevalent among the Brexit-hating metropolitan elite.
Once a vehicle for the projection of soft power, celebrating the pinnacles of British culture like the plays of Shakespeare and the music of Elgar, it has become infected by what the late philosopher Roger Scruton called ‘oikophobia’ – the repudiation of one’s own culture and the glorification of others.
Now the British Council has published a ‘diversity and inclusion’ policy that says the UK’s record on “ethnic conflicts, civil disturbances and genocides” puts it on the same footing as Syria, South Sudan and Darfur.
Notably missing from its list of shameful countries is China, for that is one part of the world where the British Council does take its commitment to ‘decolonisation’ very seriously. It is extremely careful never to breathe a word of criticism about the Chinese Communist Party’s brutal suppression of the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong – that well-known victim of British colonial oppression – lest it jeopardise the £219 million a year it receives from the People’s Republic of China.
“Imagine the BBC, but without the talent,” is how one disillusioned ex-staffer described the organisation.
Worth reading in full.
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