Beautiful Virgin Islands

Tuesday, Jun 24, 2025

‘Alphabet of woke’: NHS website hides glossary of ‘highly divisive’ terms meant for staff training from public view after furore

‘Alphabet of woke’: NHS website hides glossary of ‘highly divisive’ terms meant for staff training from public view after furore

The NHS has hidden a bizarre glossary of terms relating to “equality, diversity and inclusion” behind a password-protected wall after it drew backlash on social media for imposing “highly divisive” concepts on health workers.

The draft document, titled ‘Glossary A-Z’, is hosted on the ‘Our NHS People’ website for staff. Before it was removed from public view over the weekend, the incomplete list was found to explore a range of ideas, from ‘cultural appropriation’ to ‘intersectionality’, ‘white fragility’ and even ‘woke’ itself.

Certain sections go beyond simple definitions of terms – moving into lengthy discussions of the nature of, for instance, ‘allyship’.

Defining an ‘ally’ as someone who “actively promotes and aspires to advance the culture of inclusion,” the glossary goes on to distinguish between “authentic vs performative” forms of ‘allyship’.

While deeming “authentic allyship” the result of a “lifelong process of building relationships based on trust, consistency, and accountability with marginalized individuals and/or groups of people,” the list notes the ‘performative’ variety as being “done out of self-interest” to “look good or more credible.”

Similarly, the document explicitly differentiates between misogyny – defined as the “hatred of” and “sexist behaviours towards” women – and ‘misogynoir’, a “newer term” coined to better describe “the specific hatred, dislike, distrust, and prejudice directed toward Black women.”

The glossary also includes alphabetically-organised sections on Black Lives Matter, colonialism, identity politics, ‘micro-aggression’, tokenism, ‘taking the knee’, with a host of subsections under such hot-button topics as ‘gender’ and ‘power’.

Under ‘G for gender’, the document – which holds gender to be “culturally determined” – goes on to explore concepts of ‘gender identity’, an “innate sense” of one’s gender that “may or may not correspond to the sex assigned at birth,” and ‘gender dysphoria’, which is “discomfort or distress” as a result of a “mismatch between their sex assigned at birth and their gender identity.”

In addition, the glossary explores various conceptualisations around ‘whiteness’, including “white saviourism,” “white supremacism,” “white centering” (the “conscious and unconscious belief that whiteness is the norm”), “white exceptionalism” (the belief that being “one of the good ones” means exemption from “anti-racist work”), “white fragility” (when “white people defend against and avoid acknowledging their own racism”) and “white privilege.”

On Twitter, Conservative MP for Harborough Neil O’Brien described the glossary as an “alphabet of woke” and criticised a number of the concepts it explores as being “highly divisive” and not to be “officially pushed like this” by the NHS.

“There’s a whole bunch of concepts in there: white fragility, or white supremacy – all these kind of different things that are extremely divisive concepts that should not be being pushed by HR managers in the NHS as a sort of gospel or something to that effect,” O’Brien told the Telegraph.

Sunder Katwala, director of the independent think tank British Future, which deals with topics of integration and immigration, pointed out that in addition to focusing on “contested terms” like ‘cultural appropriation’, the glossary had failed to list topics, like disability, which were more “central” to healthcare.


“This NHS equality & diversity glossary is weak. It is in much need of proper editing & oversight. It misses out on many important EDI themes. It uses ‘Bipoc’ which makes no sense in the UK context. Many definitions are weak & often partial on contested terms,” Katwala wrote as part of a series of tweets on the document.

A number of British publications have quoted an NHS spokesperson as saying, “This draft document is not NHS guidance, was not intended for publication and has been removed.”

Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
Airlines Evaluate Flight Cancellations Amid Escalating US-Iran Tensions
Starmer Invites Innovators to Join Government Talent Scheme
UK Economy’s Strong Opening Quarter Shows Signs of Cooling
Harrods Seeks Court Order to Secure Al Fayed Estate for Victims
BA and Singapore Airlines Cancel Dubai Flights Amid Middle East Tensions
Trump Faces Backlash from MAGA Base Over Iran Strikes
Meta Bets $14 B on Alexandr Wang to Drive AI Ambitions
WATCH: Israeli forces show the aftermath of a massive airstrike at Iran's Isfahan nuclear site
FedEx Founder Fred Smith, ‘Heart and Soul’ of the Company, Dies at 80
Chinese Factories Shift Away from U.S. Amid Trump‑Era Tariffs
Pimco Seizes Opportunity in Japan’s Dislocated Bond Market
Labubu Doll Drives Pop Mart to Status as China’s Most Valuable Toy Maker
Global Coal Demand Defies Paris Accord Goals
We have new information and breaking details to share about what is shaping up to be a historic air campaign tonight
Six Massive Bombs Dropped on Fordow; Trump: 'A Historic Moment for the U.S., Israel, and the World'
Fordow: Deeply Buried Iranian Enrichment Site in U.S.–Israel Crosshairs
United States Conducts Precision Strikes on Iran’s Nuclear Sites
US strikes Iran nuclear sites, Trump says
Pakistan to nominate Trump for Nobel Peace Prize.
BBC Demands Perplexity AI Immediately Stop Using Its Content
Telegram Founder: I Will Leave My Fortune to Over 100 of My Children
Political Turmoil Resurfaces in Belgium Amid Economic Concerns
Fed policymakers divided on timing of interest rate cuts
Trump signals imminent agreement with Harvard University
Inheritance tax referendum alarms Swiss billionaire community
Japan cancels bilateral security meeting amid US defence demands
AI skeptic Emily Bender warns that ‘the emperor has no clothes’
Israel Confirms Assassination of Quds Force Commander in Tehran
16 Billion Login Credentials Leaked in Unprecedented Cybersecurity Breach
Senate hearing on who was 'really running' Biden White House kicks off
Iranian Military Officers Reportedly Seek Contact with Reza Pahlavi, Signal Intent to Defect
FBI and Senate Investigate Allegations of Chinese Plot to Influence the 2020 Election in Biden’s Favor Using Fake U.S. Driver’s Licenses
Vietnam Emerges as Luxury Yacht Destination for Ultra‑Rich
Plans to Sell Dutch Embassy in Bangkok Face Local Opposition
China's Iranian Oil Imports Face Disruption Amid Escalating Middle East Tensions
Trump's $5 Million 'Trump Card' Visa Program Draws Nearly 70,000 Applicants
DGCA Finds No Major Safety Concerns in Air India's Boeing 787 Fleet
Airlines Reroute Flights Amid Expanding Middle East Conflict Zones
Elon Musk's xAI Seeks $9.3 Billion in Funding Amid AI Expansion
Trump Demands Iran's Unconditional Surrender Amid Escalating Conflict
Israeli Airstrike Targets Iranian State TV in Central Tehran
President Trump is leaving the G7 summit early and has ordered the National Security Council to the Situation Room
Taiwan Imposes Export Ban on Chips to Huawei and SMIC
Israel has just announced plans to strike Tehran again, and in response, Trump has urged people to evacuate
Netanyahu Signals Potential Regime Change in Iran
Juncker Criticizes EU Inaction on Trump Tariffs
EU Proposes Ban on New Russian Gas Contracts
Analysts Warn Iran May Resort to Unconventional Warfare
Iranian Regime Faces Existential Threat Amid Conflict
Energy Infrastructure Becomes War Zone in Middle East
×