Dick’s call for Met recruitment based on skin colour goes above and beyond the call of stupidity

From taking the knee at Black Lives Matter protests and selective arrests of politically problematic protestors to plastering squad cars in LGBT stickers, no more evidence should be required to convince you that our boys in blue pander to progressive politics. If you’re still in any doubt, I present the latest round of insanity from Cressida Dick. 

The Metropolitan Police chief has officially gone above and beyond the call of stupidity by lobbying the government to push for a change to the law that would allow employment to be driven by positive discrimination.

It’s hard to believe that one of the most politically correct institutions in the country appears to have a recruitment problem. You would think that any Oxbridge graduate would be keen to record a non-crime hate incident. Well, it turns out they need to hire some 20,000 new officers and staff across England and Wales by 2023 – so far just 9,000 have been recruited across the whole of the United Kingdom. Apparently the biggest problem facing the force is diversity – just 10.6 per cent that have been recruited are from a minority background. London is by far the biggest problem – 11,000 more are needed in various roles by 2025.

In order to better represent the demographic makeup of the capital, the Met is aiming to increase its black and ethnic minority officers from the current 18 per cent to 40 per cent. And Dick’s answer to this demographic deficit is to push for positive discrimination. 

The problem is, this is unlawful. Under the Equality Act of 2010, hiring for racial reasons is a clear example of prejudice and bias by selection. As one Home Office source said of Dick’s decision: “It’s fair to say positive discrimination is illegal for a reason.”

She should have taken advice from the BBC which circumvents the law by calling it a diversity target. The corporation recently announced a £100 million commitment to produce “diverse and inclusive” content. In order to be more inclusive they must fill 20 per cent of roles from under-represented “BAME” groups. Even though the Creative Diversity Network’s recent study concluded that the BAME population is better represented on screen than in the country – 14 per cent of the population compared to 23 per cent on screen time. 

The most chilling problem with positive discrimination is the way equally qualified candidates will be pushed out in order to favour ethnic minority candidates. In other words, if you’re white and fancy a career in the police, be prepared for a carefully worded, politically correct rejection letter. 

But far from just breeding resentment among white candidates, it is completely insulting to ethnic minorities. As Iain Duncan Smith told MailOnline “It’s a bit degrading really to be told the only way you can get very good people from ethnic backgrounds is by accepting lowering standards.”

The Fire Brigade has been trying a similar thing. It has realised it has a gender issue – just 5.7 per cent of firefighters are women. According to HM inspectors, staff in over half the fire services they inspected felt recruitment standards had been “lowered to ensure more female applicants were successful.”

For any job, especially ones that require immense physical strength and stamina, you want the best qualified, the strongest, the most capable. You don’t sacrifice talent, intelligence and strength on the altar of diversity. That’s how lives are lost. 

The colour of someone’s skin is irrelevant. If I have had my house burgled, I don’t care if the officer’s name is Smith or Singh. What I’m interested in is will this be solved, or will it become part of the disturbing statistic that 95 per cent of burglaries and robberies across the UK go unsolved. With knife crime taking the lives of countless young men across London, there are far more serious problems the police need to address. 

Whilst this is an absolutely ridiculous and illiberal statement from Dame Cressida, I do actually share a modicum of sympathy for those lower down on the law and order ladder. It wouldn’t have helped being yelled at for close to a year by Black Lives Matter (BLM) protestors, constantly getting verbal abuse, being spat at and being told that you are part of an institutionally racist organisation, one that one BLM activist believes “is no better than the KKK.” 

Far from having a diversity problem, the police have an optics problem. Change will only come when the police are seen to actively engage with local citizens. We need more bobbies on the beat who make a concerted effort to understand the area they patrol. We don’t need diversity-driven policing, we need community-driven policing.