Woke civil servants blasted for celebrating US holidays
WOKE civil servants have been blasted for celebrating American holidays.
Officials overseeing patents in the Intellectual Property Office [IPO] have been marking Juneteenth.
The event on June 19 commemorates the end of slavery in the United States in 1865.
President Joe Biden officially signed the legislation that made the event a federal holiday in 2021.
Staff have also been celebrating the United Nation’s International Day of Indigenous Peoples, according to the body’s annual inclusion and diversity report.
It boasted that by celebrating these events they had “broadened awareness and understanding” across the workforce.
The report said their Multicultural Ethnicity and Racial Inclusion Network also have plans to support Trademark examiners in handling applications with “themes of race, culture, or religion”.
The organisation previously came under fire for holding a talk on “intellectual property and queer theory”.
William Yarwood, media campaign manager at the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “These busybody quangocrats clearly don’t have enough work to do.
“If these pen-pushers are able to find time to commemorate events that have nothing to do with their role or the country as a whole, taxpayers will be asking whether we need to employ many of them in the first place.
“If the IPO has too many staff and not enough work then the organisation’s bosses should cut down on their staffing.”
The IPO is the official UK government body responsible for intellectual property rights including trademarks and copyright.
Officials stressed they are funded by fees for their services – rather than the taxpayer.
An IPO spokesperson said: “We are committed to supporting our staff to engage with the issues that reflect our diverse and inclusive nature.
“We value the individual skills and experience our people bring to our community. Inclusion has been a core part of our culture for a long time.
“Activities range in nature, from articles highlighting issues of interest to activities that take place in people’s non-working time.”