Jane Austin

Spelthorne Borough Council in Surrey has told staff not to use the terms ‘he’ and ‘she’ because they are supposedly not inclusive. Instead, staff have been instructed to use ‘they/them’ pronouns to make people feel ‘welcome, seen, heard and respected’. The Liberal Democrat-led council has updated its inclusive language and communications guide to advise against using these everyday terms. The document, which was updated in June last year, was criticised at the time and described as ‘authoritarian’ after it claimed that terms such as ‘manpower’, ‘blacklist’ and ‘ladies’ were offensive. The updated guide offers no explanation as to why the council has devoted its efforts to this project. It also discourages the use of ‘husband’ or ‘wife’, instead directing staff to use terms such as ‘spouse’ or ‘partner’. In addition, it suggests using ‘chair’ or ‘chairperson’ instead of ‘chairman’ or ‘chairwoman’, and ‘too many chiefs’ instead of ‘too many cooks in the kitchen’. But it doesn’t stop there. The guide also says that people should replace the term ‘alcoholic’ with ‘person with alcohol-use disorder’. What an absolute farce. At the Free Speech Union, cases involving individuals being silenced or punished for their gender-critical beliefs remain the single biggest category of cases handled by our team. This is despite the Equality Act 2010 protecting these views, as reaffirmed by last year’s landmark Supreme Court ruling. The Free Speech Union will be keeping a watchful eye on this council. Read more in @Telegraph below 👇