DCMS is hiring an “Honours Strategy Lead” on up to £63,384 a year to make sure its gongs “better reflect the diversity” of people across Britain. The new 18-month post, based in Manchester, will carry out a “programme of reform” drawn up after an “internal review of DCMS honours processes.” Tweeification of honours incoming…
The hire will write policies to strengthen “the quality, diversity and regional representation of honours nominations” and drive “cultural and organisational change” across the department. They will also get their own analyst to supply “demographic analysis” to “drive improvements in the diversity of nominations.” Making gongs more woke requires two salaries…
The advert calls the reform “a key ministerial priority”. The new hire joins an existing honours team of nine. DCMS runs the biggest honours operation in Whitehall. It nominates more people than any other department and 248 people from its sectors were handed honours in last year’s Birthday list. One in five of all 1,215 awards…
Last year the department wrote to arts and sport bodies asking specifically for “individuals from underrepresented groups, including those from the North East of England and women at more senior levels”. The letter insisted honours should be awarded “based on merit.” Both at once…
LGBT+ honours recipients made up 4% of the list last year, almost double the ONS estimate of 2.2% of the population. And artsy types are London-skewed… who would’ve thought…
The new hire will also shape DCMS’s input to a “cross-Government honours review” led by the Cabinet Office. It’s the kind of thing Burnham’s lot will have a keen interest in…
Robert Jenrick on the Today programme:
“Can you now give a guarantee to your listeners this morning that no BBC presenter in the future will be exposed as a paedophile, as a number have been in the recent past? No, of course you can’t…”