Push to ‘decolonise’ the Commons library
Diversity audit in response to Black Lives Matter movement dismissed as ‘woke nonsense’ by MPs
‘If they had their way, the ideologues pushing these theories would be burning books’’
‘Diversity can now be a reason to keep something you may, for other reasons, not want to keep’
A RACE reading group has been set up by the House of Commons library to “decolonise” its shelves as it responds to the demands of the Black Lives Matter movement established after the police murder of George Floyd in the US.
Parliament’s library also carried out a diversity audit and formed a “collection diversity advisory group” as part of measures to combat racism.
The moves emerged at an online “decolonising” conference organised by the Commons for around 75 librarians and the public on May 25 that was leaked to The Sunday Telegraph.
Martin Reid, the library’s director, told attendees: “As the information experts in the HoC responsible for putting information and analysis at the heart of our parliamentary democracy, we are particularly keen to look at the question of decolonisation in the library … this has been a concern for Parliament for some time now.”
Last night the move was condemned by MPs as “woke nonsense” akin to “burning books”.
During the conference, in which tips on how to diversify libraries were shared, one attendee claimed that the word “decolonising” was “too bland” and should be replaced with “anti-colonisation” or “anti-imperialism”.
One of the four speakers, a librarian at the University of West of England in Bristol, said that “white privilege” was the “result” of colonisation.
They defined the term decolonising using an analogy: “Diversity is being asked to the party, inclusion is being asked to dance … colonial thinking is about who gets to choose the guests and the music to play.”
Two House of Commons library staff spoke alongside a University of Warwick librarian.
Matt Barrow, the Commons’ collection management librarian, explained that staff felt they had been “given a new focus after the Black Lives Matter protests in the summer of 2020 … to try to do something strategic and across the library collection as a whole”.
As a result, in August 2020, a collection diversity advisory group was formed from eight senior Commons library staff who drew up a report.
This led to a “diversity audit” of its books, displaying anti-racism books on TV monitors around Parliament, and the formation of a reading group called “reading against racism” in the library catalogue, documents obtained by the group Don’t Divide Us show.
An “equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) statement” has also been added to the collection, along with an impartiality statement and a policy for handling “controversial or potentially offensive material”.
The Commons library has also added a diversity clause to the weeding policy designed to shrink its collection to ensure “diversity can now be a reason to keep something, even if you might for other reasons not want to keep it”, Mr Barrow said.
Sir John Hayes, a Tory MP, former minister and chairman of the Common Sense Group of Tory MPs, said: “The nonsense of decolonising the canon of English literature at first seems simply foolish, but considered more carefully is the sinister ambition of subversive activists, driven by guilt and spite.”
Brendan Clarke-Smith, a member of the Common Sense Group, said: “The last thing we need to see at the moment is more woke nonsense. If they had it their way, the ideologues pushing these theories would be burning books too.
“I am proud of this country’s history. We can learn from the past but we should not be apologising for it based on the standards of the day, as [in future] this generation will be judged too.”