Cabinet Diversity

The Prime Minister (can we please stop calling him just ‘Boris’??) recently reshuffled his cabinet. He moved around his top ministers, sacked a few, brought in some new faces, and swapped others around. Whenever this happens, various people will start talking about diversity, including the PM himself. Are there too many white faces? Too many men? Too many millionaires? Too many heterosexuals? When, in 2019, Johnson appointed the highest ever number of non-whites, this was not enough to satisfy Guardian columnist Kehinde Andrews, whose piece began “Don’t be fooled by Johnson’s ‘diverse’ cabinet. Tory racism hasn’t changed”.

Downing Street itself hailed the new cabinet as “one of the most diverse cabinets in history”. Is this a good thing, or just a fact to be observed? Many other nations such as Japan or Russia, have no qualms about appointing only ethnic Russians and Japanese to their cabinets. Personally, I want the best people to be in positions of power. If this means appointing only ethnic minorities, or only whites, so be it. If it means appointing a mixture, which is more likely, so be that, too. May the best person get the job, not because of skin colour, but regardless of skin colour.

60% of the current Cabinet are privately educated. This means they come from monied backgrounds which could afford private school fees. The figure was around 30% under Blair and Brown, though 90% under Thatcher. Is this something to be concerned about? It certainly exposes some of Johnson’s rhetoric about having a diverse set of ministers. The diversity industry- which Boris Johnson is evidently seeking to impress- loves to consider skin colour, sex and background. I thank God that our Creator, who made every race and both genders, looks beyond these outward manifestations of identity. He looks at the heart, the inner sanctum, the inner character of all of us.

For the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart. 1 Samuel 16:7

Image by Kirsty Holloway from Pixabay