While the Treasury might struggle with old computers and recouping the billions lost to Covid loan fraud, at least their staff still have time to focus on the real issues. In a lengthy new internal memo to Treasury civil servants this week, the department’s head of Ethnic Diversity Network (EDN) shared a series of helpful pointers for staff to become “critical friends” of the Treasury and remind them “we are all a work in progress“. Along with the stern warning: “seemingly “nice” people can exhibit appalling behaviour: make sure that’s not you”…

The post also encourages mandarins to refresh their memories of the “Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging Action Plan“:

“Being an ally means making intentional choices and actions that make clear to everyone around you about where you stand. If you get that right, then you help change the norms of what is and isn’t acceptable and you will empower others to be heard and to participate.”

This basically amounts to staff self-policing each other Maoist-style. It’s important to “make [it] clear to everyone around you about where you stand”, sounds like ritual denunciations for deviations from woke ideology are being advocated.

“The Ethnic Diversity Network (EDN) plays an important role as critical friends of the department. It’s a role that we don’t shy away from… You can read the Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging Action Plan, and the personal commitment and kindness I have experienced from many of its members over the years… Anyone can be a critical friend — for example we all have access to our Group D&I plans and performance data via the diversity dashboard. You can ask your Group D&I Champion about how your Group is doing against its goals, share your ideas and get involved in making things happen.

If staff struggle with any of this, they’re in luck: apparently there’s still time to book onto the department’s mandatory diversity workshops which, as usual, take place during working hours…