Teaching Bank staff to be Woke!

As inflation soars with record prices at the pumps and in the shops, the Bank of England gets to grips with the most important issues...

“LADIES and gentlemen”, “man hours” and “blacklist” are among terms being prohibited by the Bank of England in its drive to be inclusive.

Staff are even banned from using blacklist in social media posts and other communications, and must use “denylist” instead. Meanwhile whitelist is replaced with “allowlist”.

Employees should also replace manhours with “hours of effort”, while ladies and gentlemen in a speech should be replaced by “everyone, guests, delegates”. Man-days must be changed to “person-day”, “workerday” or even “resource day”,

The Old Lady of Threadneedle Street said the list was to help staff be “accessible for everyone so we are inclusive and transparent”.

The terms are contained in a new style guide as part of a £51,694 rebranding of the bank which saw the St George flag being replaced with the Union Jack on the Britannia seal.

Instead of he, him, his, her or hers, staff should use they, them or their.

And in particular the word grandfather, which, in this case, means to allow someone to continue to do something that a new law or rule makes illegal, should be replaced as its origins come from the American Civil war when southern states tried to block African Americans from voting.

On social media the bank said it

By avoids “posting about religious celebrations” as “we would need to cover every religion’s major festivities to be inclusive, which is not be feasible”.

It added: “When posting about social issues, we should include a clear call to action, a pledge, or more detailed information about what the

Bank is actually doing to address the cause/issue.

“This is particularly true on Twitter, where such activities coming from a central bank can be seen as tokenistic or ‘virtue signalling’.”

The guide also sets out how images are taken. For self portraits the person should have a “subtle smile”. As for clothing, it sets out no nudity, costumes, nightwear, sunglasses or headwear except religious ones.

Staff photos should also reflect diversity in terms of age, gender, ethnicity, sexuality and disability.

And it advises staff: “Finance, economics and banking are often seen as dry subjects. Try to use language to engage people, not bore them.”

Toby Young, of the Free Speech Union, said: “It’s absolutely typical during the worst period of inflation in 40 years the Bank of England is concentrating on making sure its employees aren’t using the wrong gender pronouns instead of managing this crisis.”

Former Conservative MP Ann Widdecombe added: “It’s so encouraging to know that at a time when the country is facing an economic crisis and a massive cost of living rise the bank is spending its time that way.”

She added that the Old Lady of Threadneedle Street had better be known as the Old Person from now on.

Last June the bank came under criticism for removing portraits of former governors linked to the slave trade.

A Bank of England spokesperson said: “The bank’s style guide dates back to the 1990s and is maintained by our communications team.

“Explaining our work as clearly and accessibly as possible is important both to us and to the people we serve.”