Is it over? Are we, as in a fairy tale, stirring from our enchanted sleep, shaking off a long dream?
The Supreme Court’s ruling that womanhood is a biological reality, not an add-on that can be adopted like applying make-up, has sent public sector bodies scrambling to update their rules and, in some cases, preparing for compensation claims.
Are we seeing the beginning of the end of woke? Have we finally developed antibodies against a virus which, incubated in our universities for 40 years, leaked from campuses in the 2010s and became a pandemic?
When we look back at some of the more demented moments of recent years – British sportsmen kneeling over a death in another country, trigger warnings on literature, a professor of Mandarin being suspended because he used a Chinese phrase that sounded a bit like the n-word – do we struggle to believe that they happened?
Hmmm. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Yes, the Supreme Court has made a welcome ruling, but the extraordinary thing is that it was ever asked to confirm that the word “woman”, in law, did not apply to people with testicles. Imagine trying to explain that to someone from 20 years ago.
And, yes, there has been something of an anti-woke backlash since Donald Trump’s victory in November. European parties that were considered beyond the pale are becoming mainstream. The idea of mass deportation – remigration, to use the new buzzword – is now openly discussed in respectable media. The kind of people who make a point of calling the Tory leader Olukemi Olufunto Adegoke are louder and more visible than they were.
But keep a sense of perspective. The most virulent strains of wokery evolved in state-run or state-funded bodies – local councils, universities, quangoes. And these bodies show little sign of changing direction.
Glancing at a single day’s headlines as I write these words, I find the following stories.
A British-Pakistani jihadist who had renounced his UK nationality and asked to be sent to Pakistan following his conviction in a bomb plot in Birmingham cannot be deported “due to human rights concerns”.
Asking a colleague who messes up, “What are you smoking?” is considered racist if the colleague is black, and a tribunal has awarded someone £35,000 in such a case.
A new plaque has been unveiled where the statue of Edward Colston, the Bristol benefactor, used to stand. It makes no reference to his philanthropy but instead notes “his prominent role in the enslavement of African people”, and the fact that the statue was pulled down. Needless to say, those who pulled it down escaped punishment.
Is it over? Are we, as in a fairy tale, stirring from our enchanted sleep, shaking off a long dream?
The Supreme Court’s ruling that womanhood is a biological reality, not an add-on that can be adopted like applying make-up, has sent public sector bodies scrambling to update their rules and, in some cases, preparing for compensation claims.
Are we seeing the beginning of the end of woke? Have we finally developed antibodies against a virus which, incubated in our universities for 40 years, leaked from campuses in the 2010s and became a pandemic?
When we look back at some of the more demented moments of recent years – British sportsmen kneeling over a death in another country, trigger warnings on literature, a professor of Mandarin being suspended because he used a Chinese phrase that sounded a bit like the n-word – do we struggle to believe that they happened?
Hmmm. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Yes, the Supreme Court has made a welcome ruling, but the extraordinary thing is that it was ever asked to confirm that the word “woman”, in law, did not apply to people with testicles. Imagine trying to explain that to someone from 20 years ago.
And, yes, there has been something of an anti-woke backlash since Donald Trump’s victory in November. European parties that were considered beyond the pale are becoming mainstream. The idea of mass deportation – remigration, to use the new buzzword – is now openly discussed in respectable media. The kind of people who make a point of calling the Tory leader Olukemi Olufunto Adegoke are louder and more visible than they were.
But keep a sense of perspective. The most virulent strains of wokery evolved in state-run or state-funded bodies – local councils, universities, quangoes. And these bodies show little sign of changing direction.
Glancing at a single day’s headlines as I write these words, I find the following stories.
A British-Pakistani jihadist who had renounced his UK nationality and asked to be sent to Pakistan following his conviction in a bomb plot in Birmingham cannot be deported “due to human rights concerns”.
Asking a colleague who messes up, “What are you smoking?” is considered racist if the colleague is black, and a tribunal has awarded someone £35,000 in such a case.
A new plaque has been unveiled where the statue of Edward Colston, the Bristol benefactor, used to stand. It makes no reference to his philanthropy but instead notes “his prominent role in the enslavement of African people”, and the fact that the statue was pulled down. Needless to say, those who pulled it down escaped punishment.