While Boris opened Black History Month saying he’s “proud to lead a country celebrated for its dynamism and diversity”, he’d no doubt be uncomfortable sitting through some of the lectures his Whitehall mandarins are putting on for civil servants to elevate their woke credentials this month. Guido’s found evidence of numerous events with activists who have made their views on the PM and other ministers well known, giving a platform to hostile tirades against their own government under the nose of Simon Case and the PM. And they thought Whitehall’s work-from-home obstinance was off-message…

• The Home Office has hosted a talk by Afua Hirsch, who previously condemned the PM’s “litany of racist statements”, saying “his oafish stupidity is part of Boris Johnson’s electoral brand”.
• The new Department of Levelling Up is to be lectured to by David Olusoga, who believes “the north is not going to be levelled up, it’s going to be offered flags and xenophobia instead”, and who claims “Boris Johnson is utterly careless of everyone but himself”.
• The Home Office has invited Priyamvada Gopal to talk, an even more questionable move given she’s said that “Priti Patel is also a reminder that many Asians in British Africa had ferociously anti-black attitudes and were used by colonial administrations to keep black populations in their place. An attitude she brings to government.” She also likened the chair of the PM’s Race and Equalities Disparities Commission to Joseph Goebbels.
• The Home Office permanent secretary will also be appearing alongside John Amaechi, who last year sparked a culture war battle after making a children’s video with the BBC about White Privilege, a concept the Commons’ Education Committee concluded was holding back working-class communities.

Guido suggests Simon Case either steps in to balance these voices, or mandates woke permanent secretaries to invite more mainstream or even conservative BAME speakers to give their perspective. Katharine Birbalsingh, Tony Sewell, Trevor Phillips and Mercy Muroki would all be excellent places to start…