The Royal Navy’s Race Action Plan, enacted in November 2023, pledges to update the Navy’s “mandatory D&I training course… with the inclusion of additional content covering Culture, Race and Intersectionality”, and encourages “all staff engagement in EM [ethnic minority] related events”, including Black History Month.
A source close to Mr Shapps said: “We want an Armed Forces that everyone who is willing to serve their country is welcome to join and that supports them personally.
“But the Defence Secretary is genuinely furious about this woke nonsense and he’s determined it is routed out on his watch.”
Gender neutral ranks
The Army advises personnel to introduce their pronouns, offering the following examples: “Hello, my name is Sgt Smith and my pronouns are she/hers”, or “Hi, I’m Capt Harris, my pronouns are they/them”.
The Army’s Inclusive Behaviours guidance states that “all new Army policies and services must, where possible, use inclusive language”. Military officials argue that such policies are vital for moral, legal and operational reasons.
The Army guidance encourages personnel to include their pronouns in their email signatures to be inclusive of “people who may not conform to gender stereotypes, transgender and non-binary colleagues”.
An Army source, who asked not to be named, said: “The only time I saw a senior instructor lose their cool was when someone used the term ‘rifleman’ at which point they were berated, the instructor shouting at them that they’d better get with the program if they wanted to be a ‘professional f—ing officer’ in the British Army, in the least professional outburst possible.”
He continued: “On another occasion, we were lectured by a senior officer about the importance of not saying things like ‘manpower’, ‘rifleman’, ‘manning’ etc. Amusingly a more junior officer, evidently just trying to go with the flow, mentioned something similar later on, then quite unconsciously proceeded to use one of those terms repeatedly.”
In December 2021, the Royal Air Force transitioned to the use of “gender-neutral ranks and language”, scrapping the use of “airmen” and “airwomen” in favour of “aviator”.
In October 2023, the RAF’s Gender Network, a group for aviators to discuss gender, published a blog on the MoD intranet, accessible to all serving personnel, for “International Pronouns Day”.
The post told airmen and women “it can be offensive or harassing to guess at someone’s pronouns” and pointed to examples of “neopronouns” including “xe/xir/xirs, ze/zir/zirs and fae/faer/faers”. The RAF network defines these as “pronouns that were directly created or adapted within the language instead of evolving with it”.
The Royal Navy’s official guidance on pronouns, released in May 2023, tells sailors to “avoid using gender when referring to a person generically”, encourages them “to routinely share” their pronouns and urges them to avoid saying “Good morning, guys” [and to] replace this with “Good morning, everyone/team”.
The Armed Forces gender neutral drive has led to questions from soldiers; in June 2021, one asked on the MoD’s intranet site where personnel can ask questions of those in higher ranks. “What is a suitable and respectful gender-neutral alternative to Sir or Ma’am?”
An officer replied that while “there’s no specific winner in the debate” there are options including “Mx”, using military titles, or terms from Japanese martial arts “like ‘sensei’ and ‘senpai’ [which] are gender-neutral”.
William Turner is a seasoned U.K. correspondent with a deep understanding of domestic affairs. With a passion for British politics and culture, he provides insightful analysis and comprehensive coverage of events within the United Kingdom.
