Nothing to do with athletics

HMRC staff caught holding 'nonsense' 'Guilt of Being British' event during work hours

Staff at HM Revenue and Customs have been slated for holding a seminar on the "Guilt of Being British" during working hours.

The hour-long session, run by "HMRC Race Network" from 11am to midday on Tuesday, was titled "Guilt of Being British: Listening Circle".

It was advertised as "a powerful, interactive, and reflective listening circle exploring the emotional complexity of being South Asian and British" which would cover topics including "the emotional weight of colonial history".


Once upon a time, something called the "HMRC Race Network" could have been an athletics club to encourage a few chair-polishers to get up off their ample backsides for a spot of after hours competitive running.

Today, the notion of an HMRC athletics club would not be the first assumption. Far more likely would be an assumption about some foolish progressive nonsense designed to humiliate anyone subversive enough to think for themselves on matters social and political.

As anyone paying attention knows, and as Orwell described so graphically in 1984, it's a totalitarian tactic, the use of forced nonsense as a way to humiliate and subdue populations. It works on any scale, from lonely Winston Smith to the humiliated saps attending "HMRC Race Network" sessions.