Cultural Nazis have taken over the British Film Institute – of course, they already run the BBC

UK Culture Secretary

The BBC announced last month that it is to introduce racial quotas: by 2017, 15% of actors and presenters and 10% of managers will be black, Asian or minority ethnic. Tony Hall, the BBC DG, said, “I want a new talent-led approach that will help set the pace in the media industry. I believe in this and want our record to be beyond reproach.”

Of course, this is the exact opposite of a talent-led approach. It’s a sordid, demeaning, insulting exercise designed to allow members of our “enlightened” left-liberal elite to frantically rub their enormous sense of self-regard into a state of almost painful tumescence. This will probably keep them happy for a few months, by which time they will be casting around for some other deranged scheme on which to waste the license fee with a view to ”fixing” society while underlining their own moral superiority.

Tony Hall’s statement begs the obvious question – precisely whose “reproach” does he wish the BBC to be beyond? I can only assume it’s that of Lenny Henry, who seems to have been a prime mover in this wholly repulsive plan to rewire reality. I suppose that, having made a bloody good living out of being black, Henry doesn’t see why hiring and promoting people on the basis of their skin colour shouldn’t be made compulsory, thereby endowing him with hero status amongst liberals, thereby wiping away the stain of what he seems to feel was the Uncle Tom-ery of his early career in show business. Well, I for one certainly don’t mind what I get in return for my license fee being determined by the need for Lenny Henry to feel really, really good about himself.

Given that all actors and everyone who wants to work for the BBC appears to be a Guardian-reading Labour voter with impeccably liberal social views, I expect the white actors and white would-be executives who will inevitably lose out to more acceptably-pigmented candidates won’t feel in the least resentful at being the victims of the crudest possible sort of affirmative action. And, of course, the majority of indigenous Britons, who don’t even vaguely approve of this sort of thing, and who fund the vast bulk of the licence fee, won’t in the least mind being pushed around by self-regarding metropolitan liberals. And those black and Asian actors, presenters and executives who’ve succeeded at the BBC through talent and hard work won’t in the least mind viewers now suspecting that they only got the gig because they’re not white, and have therefore won first prize in the lottery of modern life.

This week, the British Film Institute has told movie companies that they’ll be denied lottery funding unless they meet targets for ethnic, gay and female characters in their films and ensure that “minority” workers are sufficiently represented on set. Here are some of the specific hoops which according to the Daily Telegraph (here), film companies will have to jump through:

• At least one lead character must positively “reflect diversity”.
• Stories which “explicitly and predominantly explores issues of identity relating to ethnicity or national origins, a specific focus on women, people with disabilities, sexual identity, age and people from a socially disadvantaged background” will be more likely to receive funding.
• At least 30% of supporting and non-speaking characters must also be “diverse”.
• At least two heads of department must be from diverse backgrounds.
• A range of “key creatives” must also be from diverse backgrounds.
• Paid internships and jobs must be offered to those from diverse backgrounds.

Amanda Nevill, the cultural fascist who is the Institute’s CEO, warned the cowering British people that this “is just the beginning.”

What ever happened to the idea of just making good films and television programmes which the public might actually enjoy? And what about the principle of appointing the right person for the job?

I’ve asked this question – and I’ll no doubt ask it again – but how did we reach this ridiculous, sinister state of affairs, where our money is being gleefully misappropriated in order to realise the deranged fantasies of a tiny minority of utterly unrepresentative urban leftists?

I can only assume that the Islingtonian/Notting Hill aliens who have so successfully conquered the commanding heights of our cultural life have realised that there’s a distinct possibility (although still a fairly slim one) that the next election might result in a slightly less socially liberal government than the current version, and that they’d better  get their skates on and do as much irreversible damage as possible in the time remaining.