According to a report, despite RAF commanders’ prior insistence that diversity objectives and leaked texts insulting “useless white male pilots” did not infringe the law, an investigation has ruled that the RAF illegally discriminated against white males in its recruiting procedures.
After Air Chief Marshal Sir Mike Wigston’s retirement, Air Vice Marshal Maria Byford directed the director of RAF recruiting, Group Captain Lizzy Nicholl, to give preference to women and people of color over white candidates who were otherwise equally competent. Nicholl resigned after raising concerns that the directive was illegal, and an independent investigation has shown that she was correct.
Wigston, who previously told the legislature there had been no illegal bias toward Caucasian men, said the inquiry’s report made it uncomfortable to read but pledged that no one would be fired or propagate fault for the fiasco throughout procedures and judicial advice, so no one decision maker is held culpable.
The reports show that British police personnel involved in grooming gang incidents have used similar strategies to evade punishment.
Although it is technically illegal to discriminate against job applicants on the basis of gender, race, or sexual orientation in the UK, so-called “positive action” rules in the applicable equality laws do permit employers to do things like limiting access to specific training programs and internships and favoring a single applicant over another to boost “representation” when two applicants are otherwise equally qualified.
Like the Cheshire Police force preceding them, the RAF pushed these relatively lax laws to the limit in the name of anti-white discrimination.
Reporting shows that governments have pressured the British Armed Forces– Army, and the Navy to diversify what has been a mostly white male profession for years. Chiefs of defense have made this a priority.
The Ministry of Defense has said that it plans to double the current percentage of female Armed Force recruits from 12% to 30% by 2030.
The Royal Air Force has lofty ambitions. By the conclusion of the decade, the government hopes to have doubled the number of women joining the air force.
Within the same time range, the goal for ethnic minorities in the air force is to increase from the current 10% to 20% of all recruits.
