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Top RAF official quits over woke policies – media — Analysis

According to her, a policy restricting recruitment of white men will harm fighting strength.

The head of recruitment and selection for the UK’s Royal Air Force has resigned in protest over hiring restrictions on white males in a bid to meet “Impossible” diversity goals, defense sources told Sky News on Tuesday.

The group captain reportedly expressed concern in her letter of resignation that placing limits on hiring could hurt the unit’s fighting strength. 

Her apparent departure followed claims by defense sources that the RAF had imposed an “effective pause” on hiring white males, while pushing to hire more women and ethnic minorities. 


Pentagon outlines ‘equity’ priorities

An RAF spokesperson has denied that any racial quotas have been imposed, stating “There is no stoppage in Royal Air Force Recruitment and there are no changes to the policy regarding in-year recruitment..”

The Ministry of Defense previously stated that 30% of all new recruits to the British army would be women by 2030. The RAF’s goals are even more dramatic, as they would more than double the current percentage of women, with 40% female recruits by that time. By the deadline, 20% of all new hires must be from ethnic minorities. 

Diversity-seeking recruiters have been stymied by reluctance among women and minorities to join certain areas of the service, however, and the RAF is required to hire sufficient personnel to meet “Operating inflow requirements” – the bare minimum levels of staffing required for the service to operate. 

Sky News has multiple reports that the pressure is on to hire minority workers. “We are all really pro-diversity and we want to see better representation across the services but… levels of ambition for ethnic targets… are absolutely crazy,” one said, noting there was no science to back up this ambition. The military division has also embraced the language of ‘inclusivity’, changing gender-specific terms – “airman” became “Aviator” – and embracing pronouns in signatures.

Sky News defense sources have blamed Air Chief Marshal Sir Mike Wigston for prioritizing diversity at the expense of combat readiness, pointing to serious operational problems within the military division that remain even after Defense Secretary Ben Wallace assigned Wigston the task of fixing flight training as his “Priority should be your first priority” over two years ago.  

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Leaked documents recently revealed that the shortage of fully functional training planes and the dearth in qualified instructors had caused a serious disruption to the training system. This has prevented hundreds of RAF recruits from being able to start their training and take refresher courses that will keep them flying for many years.

Wigston has also encouraged autistic and other “neuro-diverse” people to consider a career with the RAF, acknowledging that if recruits can use a computer, they “probably” won’t have to pass a physical fitness test.

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