Ex-Ambassador exposes anti-Welsh jibes made by English people

Martin Shipton

A former UK Ambassador has told how a civil servant stunned colleagues at a Whitehall “diversity awareness” course by denouncing the anti-Welsh condescension he had been subjected to by English people for years.

Alexandra Hall Hall (sic) was reacting on the social media channel X to an announcement by Cabinet Office Minister Esther McVey that the UK Government would employ no more trainers dedicated to DEI (diversity, equality and inclusion).

Sensitive

Ms Hall Hall, who was Ambassador to Georgia from 2013 to 2016, wrote: “A small anecdote. I attended a DEI awareness course at FCO [Foreign and Commonwealth Office]. Everyone there thought they were already sensitive, aware, ‘right-on types’, who of course, would never endorse racist, sexist or other discriminatory behaviour.

“The attendees were completely stunned when a Welsh participant, who’d been sitting quietly at the back, largely ignored by everyone, suddenly erupted in anger to say how for years he’d had to listen to English people make endless condescending, unfunny, patronising swipes and jokes about his nation and people.

“We were absolutely gobsmacked. We thought we were so enlightened- would NEVER be rude about Pakistanis, or migrants, or Muslims, or Jews, or gays etc – yet had completely overlooked/failed to recognise the patronising racism existing for aeons in plain sight inside the UK. It was certainly a wake up call for me. Unconscious bias and stereotyping is the worst kind of all, precisely because you don’t recognise it for what it is. Its insidious effects, even if unintentional, can be just as harmful.

“The UK system is riddled with bias, not all of it unconscious. Many think of it as about race, gender or religion – but class, accent, dress, where you went to school, live, how you dress, etc all act as insidious barriers too. DEI courses (if well run) can be vital eye openers.

“Goes without saying that Scots, Irish, traveller community, perhaps different regions within England itself – ‘yokels’ from the SW; ‘brummies’; Geordies from ‘oop north”’etc – will probably all recognise this phenomenon too.”

‘Too Welsh’

Ms Hall Hall’s comments struck a chord with former Plaid Cymru councillor Penri James, from Aberystwyth, who responded: “I was once interviewed in London for a government post with [the agricultural and environmental consultancy] ADAS (17 April 1984). I was not offered a post. I met up with one of the interviewers about 10 years later who said the other panel members thought me ‘too Welsh’!”

A woman called Marianne M also responded, stating: “My eye opener came when, as an EU citizen with almost accentless English, I was told ‘we don’t want EU migrants here’. Replying ‘People like me?’ was met with an ever so slightly embarrassed but unrepentant ‘we don’t mean YOU’. I started understanding how it works for others.”

Not everyone agreed with Ms Hall Hall, however. A self-styled “Unionist” from Glasgow called M Chesney-Stroak wrote: “Thank God you’re no longer in FCDO [Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office] – how you progressed in the diplomatic service is a complete mystery – anyone with your prissy, priggish, and humourless Puritanism should be nowhere near a diplomatic role. Woke, “right-on”, or PC (call it what you like) needs rooted out pronto.”

Ms Hall Hall previously created a stir by quitting as Brexit Counsellor at the UK Embassy in Washington DC just over a week before the general election in December 2019.

Dismayed

In a searing resignation letter, Ms Hall Hall said: “I have been increasingly dismayed by the way in which our political leaders have tried to deliver Brexit, with reluctance to address honestly, even with our own citizens, the challenges and trade-offs which Brexit involves; the use of misleading or disingenuous arguments about the implications of the various options before us; and some behaviour towards our institutions, which, were it happening in another country, we would almost certainly as diplomats have received instructions to register our concern. It makes our job to promote democracy and the rule of law that much harder, if we are not seen to be upholding these core values at home.”

Ms Hall Hall said she could no longer reconcile her commitment to the job with the demands made of her. “I am also at a stage in life where I would prefer to do something more rewarding with my time, than peddle half-truths on behalf of a government I do not trust,” she wrote.