The ever expanding tentacles of Wokeism

The cult of Wokeism, like Japanese knotweed is growing relentlessly and without radical surgery will consume all before it.

The Marxist, identitarian left, unable to win at the ballot box, has instead hijacked British institutions with devastating results.

The culture wars are real but largely only one side is fighting. Social conservatives must find their voice and push back strongly.

The reverberations from the Colston 4 trial reached Cambridge this week, resulting in a spat between 2 professors (Priyamvada Gopal and David Abulafia) over the latter's use of the word "eloquent" in a newspaper article in relation to a witness for the defence, a third professor, David Olusoga whose father was Nigerian.

According to the Mail Online, Gopal, who has a history of race baiting, claimed using the words eloquent or articulate for "intellectuals of colour" could be seen as a sleight-of-hand dismissal. She said it implied the person was "just whipping up passions" and had no substance.

Quite how "eloquent" could be termed racist is clearly for high brow minds much cleverer than mine because the last time I checked, it has no such connotations whatsoever. Madness.

English Literature students at Salford University have been warned of the perils that lie within the works of Brontë and Dickens, which have the potential to cause "distress".

Despite both authors being staples of reading lists for over 150 years, these poor impressionable minds apparently have to be braced for passages that may trigger them.

As I'm writing this, I have double checked the Gregorian calendar to ensure I have not overslept and no, it is not April Fools' Day, which leads me to wonder where the value is in racking up tens of thousands of pounds in student debt. Now that is a real fool's errand for many.

Nigel Rees, veteran of 46 years at the BBC as the presenter of Radio 4's Quote… Unquote has left the organisation after over 500 episodes of the show after accusing the broadcaster of "Wokery" and an "agenda" to include amongst panelists, people of colour and those with disabilities.

The BBC increasingly interfered in the quotations used, including the scrapping of the use of lyrics from Noel Coward's 1931 song "Mad dogs and Englishmen".

In recent years, Rees was increasingly presented with shortlists mainly comprising potential panelists from "ethnic or vocal minorities". Never mind their ability to be amusing, witty or literate, a prerequisite for anyone appearing on the show.

Also in recent years, an increasing number of the population have cancelled their TV licence. I wonder if there might be a correlation?

We end this week in Wokeland not with with offensive tweets but offensive sweets. Apparently, according to Dr Erin Pritchard, a lecturer in disability and education, told supermarkets that the term midget was "a form of hate speech", leading M&S to rebrand their product to Mini Gems.

Dr Pritchard, who suffers with achondroplasia, the most common form of dwarfism, said: "The word midget is a form of hate speech and contributes to the prejudice that people with dwarfism experience on a daily basis".

The Liverpool Hope University academic criticised stores, as well as comedians and TV shows, for continuing to use the word.

Whilst I have sympathy with Dr Pritchard's condition, presumably she will be calling for the renaming of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs to Snow White and the Seven People of Restricted Growth.

So long as public and private institutions continue to cave in to a small number of loud voices banging hard on a desk for them to change words, schedules and practices that have not been an issue for decades or even hundreds of years, their inevitable and inexorable erosion will continue.