Esther McVey pledges to ban rainbow lanyards in the Civil Service
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/05/13/esther-mcvey-pledges-to-ban-rainbow-lanyards-civil-service/
Posted by The_Unstoppable_Egg
Esther McVey pledges to ban rainbow lanyards in the Civil Service
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/05/13/esther-mcvey-pledges-to-ban-rainbow-lanyards-civil-service/
Posted by The_Unstoppable_Egg
39 Comments
It’s a fucking lanyard. Off all the shit to get bent out of shape about this isn’t it.
“We’re not just a party of bigots looking to make the world a worse place to live and work, honest. If that were the case why would be launching the impactful policies the country needs like *checks notes* banning rainbow lanyards”.
Can we have affordable mortgages, reduced NHS waiting lists and cheaper food and energy bills please? Nope? Just the end of rainbow lanyards?
God this iteration of the tories can’t fall into a volcano fast enough.
Thank god for that!
What a fucking idiotic waste of effort from the minister for common sense
…….Tackling the big issues of our time for £130000 a year, plus expenses.
>Scottish Parliament staff are no longer allowed to wear rainbow lanyards – **or other accessories that show support for social movements** – at Holyrood.
>All staff must now wear a generic purple lanyard with immediate effect.
>Claire Baker, an MSP who sits on the Scottish Parliament’s Corporate Body (SPCB), announced the changes in the Holyrood chamber earlier.
>A parliament spokesperson said: “This decision will help minimise the risk of perceived bias.”
>They added: “It will also help avoid any potential misperception over the absolute impartiality of all Scottish parliamentary staff.”
>The changes will apply to staff and officials who work directly for the Scottish Parliament. It will not affect MSPs or their staff.
[https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-68629616](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-68629616)
the parliament run by the SNP and Scottish Greens has basically introduced a rule that prevents people from personalising their lanyards with “social” messages. Now read the comments and responses on this thread for the exact same thing in Westminster.
Its easy to understand, it would not be hard for people with strong socially conservative of more controversial political views to use this. It may also be seen as people whos job is to be neutral as being on a side when controversial changes come up.
Sensible policy with inflammatory framing by a newspaper is inflaming some people.
Note how easily some are caught up by the framing rather than the detail.
Always try to get the wider context and never trust a newspapers framing. Also be careful of being sucked in by the emotive “hot takes” online. Some people live for being outraged and not all of them are Daily Mail readers 😉
Edit, I love the fact the culture warriors have been so triggered by a policy that should have been the norm anyway. These are not people worth taking seriously.
I felt like I was being railroaded into wearing one in the CS a few years back. Department head kept prompting it and 95% of people had one. Got asked loads why I didn’t have one.
Gay marriage? Yes defo.
Equal rights? Yes defo.
Do I like the look of rainbow clothing? No, it’s garish and I don’t want to wear one.
The ban is about banning not the rainbow lanyard but any lanyards to do with identity or politics or causes and I think that’s fine because often the ABSENCE of not wearing a certain lanyard can paint you as a potential bigot, so it’s a good move.
Damn. Good luck with that. Will she ban my rainbow laces, my rainbow Apple Watch, and my rainbow rucksack? The more cretins seem to think we will cower and go back into the closet the more we will wear it.
I almost forgot that we had a minister for culture wars, thank christ we’re tackling things like this
Wouldn’t want people to think the government are spending money on frivolous nonsense
“I don’t like this thing. This thing must be banned”
Are you a fascist, Ms McVey?
I wear one because I used to love Bungle and Geoffrey.
What if the ‘rainbows’ consisted of different coloured stripes?
> Working in the Civil Service is all about leaving your political views at the building entrance. Trying to introduce them by the back door via lanyards should not happen.
So will they be banning Civil Servants from wearing Poppies in November?
If not, it would be interesting to hear McVey explain why without accidentally admitting to being a raging bigot.
Honestly what an absolute twat! The money paid for her salary trying to please the remaining right of the party should be spent on resource needed to bring the perpetrators of the PPE scandal to light.
Ordinary working/middle class people only vote for Tories because of the perceived image it portrays about their standing in life! The party just needs to crawl into a whole and rot away!
as Sir Talbot Buxomly once said “sensible policies for a happier Britain”.
We’re eventually going to get to the point where they start revoking gay rights the longer this insane culture war bullshit goes on
Oh please everyone else get rainbow lanyards and wear them everywhere..
Maybe I’m incredibly unobservant but I’m not sure I can recall ever seeing a colleague in the CS wearing a rainbow lanyard. I’m sure people do, but if I think of my office I only ever see plain black, and then the odd branded lanyard which tend to have one colour.
Finally, a party getting in with the things this country cares about.
I’m so glad that they have sorted cost of living, invested in long term support for the NHS, restored our standing on the world stage, built starter homes, sorted out the railways/power/water/roads, removed trade barriers and red tape.
Cause if they hadn’t and were instead spending time on shit like this you could be forgiven for thinking they were more interested in appealing to bigots than governing.
Because this is Britain’s most pressing problem right now. /s
Meanwhile it’s a loosing battle to get everyone back into the office…
I don’t think I have ever wanted a rainbow lanyard as much as I do now. Id wear anything that shows how much I hate our broken political system, and particularly that shows my utter contempt for the Tory party….
Imagine this being your political priority for the day
And you go through the years, sticking to that, misplaced, outdated, irrelevant to the real needs
I mean. Banning just rainbow lanyards is dumb (I’m sure that’ll actually fall foul of some discrimination legislation somewhere), since orientation is a protected characteristic and rainbows are associated with LGBTQ+ communities.
It only “makes sense” if they ban every other lanyard and force people to wear official Civil Service lanyards.
And yet, of all the things wrong with the country right now, they choose, of course, to play The Culture Wars™ to rile up a minority to vote for them because they have nothing else.
I’m a civil servant.
I’ve never felt the need to wear a rainbow lanyard. I’m gonna go out and get one now.
People realise rainbow Is also a design choice right? Not everyone is gay
“minister for common sense”…
If this was in a satirical comedy programme it would be mocked for being too verbose. What a joke our government is.
[removed]
Great to see the people in charge prioritising the important things that really matter most to the people of this country.
If more people could be as committed to doing the right thing as Esther McVey this country could be a better place!
On the list of things people give a fuck about, what colour your lanyard is has got to be down near the very bottom.
Good. That’s the spirit! Ban lanyards. Ffs. What a disaster of a government
Your cult doesn’t deserve to be “represented” in government anymore than any other cult.
Oh thank god. Make Britain British again. Should make them wear Union Jack lanyards and kiss a picture of Winston Churchill before every shift. This is the stuff that really matters, this is what I pay tax for!
Tories out tackling the big issues in our society as always.
Get in the bin.
Honing in on the real issues that really matter to people, and expecting that people will actually listen to it. Wish I could live with my head in the clouds, say and do whatever without repercussions – damn my pesky conscience.
Oh because that’s the biggest problem in the country right now
Tories tackling the big issues.
These people have no shame. Out now…!
Not a Minister for ‘common sense’ but her job description is just as vaguely defined.
Seems like a priority task that’s really worth wasting political capital on pushing. The eye-rolling within the Civil Service must be nearing fatal levels now.