Meeting of the Parliament 24 June 2026 [Draft]
I fear that the member is more interested in defending ideology than addressing the real-world consequences for our young people.
What began with noble intentions—to foster greater understanding and respect—has morphed into a rigid creed that celebrates every diversity except diversity of thought. Equity now means engineering equal outcomes and, too often, inclusion means excluding anyone who questions the orthodoxy. Our institutions have been captured. In universities such as those in Edinburgh and Glasgow, staff are pressured to submit diversity statements and to decolonise curricula. Employees across the Scottish public sector are sent on anti-racism training that promotes discrimination against white people, while students are told that they suffer from white privilege. Dissenters face silencing or cancellation. The result is groupthink, not genuine diversity.
Nowhere is that more damaging than in its effect on young men, particularly white working-class men. Positive action schemes and diversity targets in public bodies and higher education have, in too many cases, tipped into outright discrimination. That is not equality. It is racism. Martin Luther King dreamed of a society where people would be judged not by the colour of their skin, but by the content of their character. When did we abandon that principle and decide that it was acceptable to discriminate once again?