Diversity is conformity: Woke ideology is riddled with contradictions.

The strange thing about the doctrine of diversity, that superficially benign and compassionate tenet designed to protect and respect all sections of society, is just how intolerant and conformist it actually is. Some events over recent days remind us of this paradox.

Consider a tweet from Essex Police, made on Monday to coincide with Pride Month, and since widely disseminated on social media:

‘We celebrate diversity by raising the Pride Progress flag for #PrideMonth at our HQ & to honour those who championed equality before us! #WeValueDifference #PoliceinPride… We’re monitoring our posts. All hate crime will be reported & investigated’

As Vernal Scott, diversity and inclusion manager at Essex Police, felt minded to remind us: ‘Pride Month – Policing: Beneath the uniform the blood runs red and the courage and commitment to protect and serve is undiminished by sexual orientation, ethnicity, gender, disability, age, religion… If you have a problem with these truths or images, let education be your fix.’

The toxic mixture of compassion and menace is unmistakable – be diverse or be re-educated! – and it’s an all-too-familiar one.

The police have form here. Last February, Merseyside Police, as part of its campaign to encourage people to report hate crime, erected on a mobile billboard a poster with the ominous words ‘being offensive is an offence’. That the impulse to be conspicuously tolerant propels some to display such bully-boy tendencies is superficially surprising. But it isn’t really. It’s the internal logic of mandatory compassion.