‘Ere, Sarge, what rhymes with gender sensitivity? Incredulity at the Yard over politically-correct poetry contest

  • Scotland Yard officers asked to enter a poetry competition on the theme of ‘gender equality’

By
Stephen Wright

Last updated at 10:29 PM on 17th February 2012


Bizarre: Scotland Yard officers have been asked to enter a poetry competition on the theme of 'gender equality'. The prize is a chance to have 'elevenses' with the Met's head of diversity Denise Milani, pictured

Bizarre: Scotland Yard officers have been asked to enter a poetry competition on the theme of ‘gender equality’. The prize is a chance to have ‘elevenses’ with the Met’s head of diversity Denise Milani, pictured

It’s enough to make the hard men of the Sweeney choke on their cigars and double whiskies.

Scotland Yard officers have been asked to enter a poetry competition on the theme of ‘gender equality’.

The prize is a chance to have ‘elevenses’ with the Met’s head of diversity Denise Milani, who is renowned in Britain’s biggest police force for her touchy-feely initiatives.

Officers are told their poems must
focus on ‘recruitment, retention or progression’ at the Yard, creating a
‘gender-sensitive working environment’ or ‘successfully managing
gender-diverse teams’.

They
must also provide Miss Milani, 54, with insight on the progress made
with the ‘Gender Agenda’ from a male or female perspective and suggest a
‘positive vision’ for the Met.

Details of the extraordinary competition
were leaked to the Police Inspector blog, prompting a furious reaction
from serving officers who accused the Met of wasting taxpayers’ money.

Inspector Gadget, the anonymous author
of the blog, wrote: ‘I can categorically say that this is the maddest
diversity nonsense we have ever featured.

‘I would like to hear from more female officers to see what they think of this, in between making tea for the lads of course!’

Within minutes of his posting, Inspector Gadget was inundated with examples of possible entries, some of which were obscene.

Another
outraged policeman said: ‘Now that this is in the public domain, can a
member of the public write a letter of complaint to BHH (Met
Commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe) about this scandalous waste of their
taxes?’. 

Poetry: There once was a girl called Denise

The poetry competition has been launched to coincide with next month’s International Women’s Day.

On the force’s internal Intranet, officers and civilian staff are urged to ‘get creative’ in the run-up to the event.

Miss Milani, the daughter of West Indian migrants, originally qualified as a teacher and joined the Met in 1999.

She is believed to be paid more than £80,000 a year, although Scotland Yard refuses to reveal her exact salary.

Despite a cost-cutting campaign at the Yard, her position as Director
of the Diversity and Citizen Focus Directorate appears safe.

Angry response: Details of the extraordinary competition were leaked to the Police Inspector blog, prompting a furious reaction from serving officers who accused the Met of wasting taxpayers¿ money

Angry response: Details of the extraordinary competition were leaked to the Police Inspector blog, prompting a furious reaction from serving officers who accused the Met of wasting taxpayers’ money

The directorate promotes the recognition of the Met’s minority
employees – dealing with gender, disability, sexual orientation, age and
faith as well as race. It has a total of 36 staff.

In
2008, the Mail revealed how Miss Milani had urged Met staff to
‘celebrate’ the contribution of Roma gipsies to ‘London’s culture and
diversity’. 

The Yard said:
‘The Metropolitan Police polices one of the most diverse cities in
Europe and is the biggest single employer in London.

‘It
can only succeed by recognising and responding to the needs of the
varied communities and workforce it serves and the DCFD plays a key role
by providing specialist knowledge and strategic diversity guidance
across the organisation.’

Here’s what other readers have said. Why not add your thoughts,
or debate this issue live on our message boards.

The comments below have been moderated in advance.

In these days of austerity do we really need a Head of Diversity, or PC, or Racism? I think the answer is a resounding, no!

‘She is believed to be paid more than £80,000 a year, although Scotland Yard refuses to reveal her exact salary.’ A ‘directorate’ with 36 staff?? Obviously, spending cuts relating to the police will, as routinely claimed, impact on front-line services: fewer officers etc. As ever, always plenty of money to fund the really essential and indispensible diversity industry.

There was a non-male called Denise/ Who said to the police oh please/ Come have some nice tea, with lil ole me/ But if you’re a man it’s hard cheese

If you were a Met policeman, would you prefer to write politically correct poetry or investigate a crime? It’s a no brainer!

Wow! Time flies doesn’t it? April 1st already!
Thirty-six staff! Having a laugh aren’t you? I’d love to read some of the job titles/descriptions of that bunch…

Nero played his fiddle while Rome burned and disappeared into history. Our prime minister prances about the world stage as if all is well, while England crumbles and dies under the weight of crime, PC nonsense, human rights and health and safety rules

I don’t want ‘poet’ coppers – I want coppers who are thief takers and collar feelers – as long as they can say ‘You’re knicked sunshine’ that will do for me. And as for ‘diversity et al’ – bin it and save the money for paying for more down to earth street pounding coppers. Having just read the 2 books by a local Sheffield bobby I say thats the way policing should be – it worked then and it can work now.

She has a very high opinion of herself if she feels any person with an ounce of common sense would not want elevenses with her. This is counterproductive, it actually generates resentment and disaffection rather than harmony and co-operation. The Met should re assess if they have the right person in the role who can bring everyone on board in this sensitive area of equality for all, black or white, or any other denomination and eliminate ‘positive descrimination’ which is divisive and very counterproductive.

absolutely insane!!! The police should save some money and make much better use of police time by getting rid of this role.

They would’nt have a clue! PLEASE publish the entries here – we’ll be rolling with laughter. Even half the female officers seem to be proud to be ‘acting like men’ and are nothing but bullies and sexist themselves. The police needs a shake up from top to bottom and as the previous poster said, the police employees who have created the need for this should be sacked not be persuaded to write poems. Let deserving people of good character have their jobs and they can write poetry whilst they’re on the dole!

The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline.

Views: 0

You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

Leave a Reply

Powered by WordPress | Designed by: Premium WordPress Themes | Thanks to Themes Gallery, Bromoney and Wordpress Themes