Your Majesty

'The King'

The government, according to the Daily Mail is to extend its offer of a free official portrait of ‘the King’ to include Church of England premises—of which ’the King’ is the head and defender thereof. The portrait scheme is already due to cost the taxpayer £8 million. The Mail’s story doesn’t make clear whether you get a gilt frame thrown in, but at that price you should. The portrait may come as a shock to viewers of The Crown, who will be surprised to learn that their monarch doesn’t look like Dominic West.

​At the same time, ‘Esther McVey has announced that Civil Service jobs dedicated to equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) will be banned - calling them 'woke hobby horses'.’ (reports LBC radio) Given that the aforementioned portraits seem destined only to go to Church of England premises and not mosques, one can see how the Tories’ culture wars agenda is developing. It’s all about reaffirming British, or more precisely English values, to show the Tory core vote that even with a Hindu prime minister their natural prejudices will be sustained. I wonder how much EDI civil servants cost the nation. £8 million? As part of the crackdown on wokery, ‘new guidance would stop all external EDI spending across the Civil Service unless it is specifically signed off and cleared by ministers’ (LBC) - as if they had nothing better to do (no, they haven’t).

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