Britain’s Royal Air Force (RAF) unlawfully discriminated against white men in its recruitment processes, an inquiry has found, despite RAF leaders previously insisting diversity targets and leaked messages disparaging “useless white male pilots” did not break the law.
Air Vice Marshal Maria Byford, following Air Chief Marshal Sir Mike Wigston, ordered Group Captain Lizzy Nicholl, then head of RAF recruitment, to prioritize women and ethnic minorities over more qualified white applicants. Nicholl objected that the instruction was unlawful, ultimately forcing her from her job, and a non-statutory inquiry has now conceded that she was right.
Wigston, who previously told Parliament there had been no unlawful discrimination against white men, said the inquiry’s report made for “uncomfortable reading” – but has vowed no one will be fired, spreading blame for the fiasco across various processes and bits of legal advice so no individual decision maker is held responsible. Similar tactics have been used to avoid punishing police officers over Britain’s grooming gangs scandals.
Discriminating against jobseekers on the basis of ethnicity, sex, and sexual orientation is technically unlawful in the United Kingdom, but so-called “positive action” provisions in the relevant equality laws do allow employers to, for example, make certain training courses and internships – including paid internships – available only to certain groups, and allow employers to select one candidate over another to increase “representation” if they are equally qualified.
The RAF bent even these rather loose rules past breaking point in its anti-white discrimination, like Cheshire Police force before them.
