This coming week is Holyrood Week in Scotland and King Charles and Camilla arrived early in Scotland. On Saturday they attended the opening ceremony of the Scottish Parliament and Charles gave a speech. Charles also wore a kilt, which he loves. Prince Philip was like that too, always ready to throw on the kilt for public events in Scotland. I hope everyone knows that the Windsor tradition of wearing a kilt dies with Charles. Charles’s heir doesn’t care. Prince William finds it all so embarrassing – the kilts, the capes, the robes, the church.
In any case, throughout Holyrood Week everyone can expect to see a lot of Charles and Camilla. They’re opening the Palace of the Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh, they’ll be hosting at least one garden party, and they’ll have some casual outings to highlight local craft and culture. People Magazine did a big thing about how this was Charles’ first outing since the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s office confirmed they will visit the UK in July, and that Deadbeat Grandad Charles will see his two ginger grandchildren for the first time in over four years.
Meanwhile, journalists are still poring over all the financial documents released by Buckingham Palace last week. Charles released information about his income tax, and as it turns out, they also released a report on the demographics of the palace, meaning the gender breakdown and the still-non-existent diversity czar.
Buckingham Palace today opened its annual accounts to share details of how the monarchy spent public money in the last financial year, as well as its performance in other areas. And one of the things that has come to light is that you have missed your own diversity target when it comes to the number of employees with ethnic minority backgrounds.
“As we shape a household fit for the future, we have also sought to ensure our workforce reflects the community it serves,” Keeper of the Privy Purse James Chalmers – the King’s personal treasurer – told reporters today. “We are therefore proud that the gender balance of our workforce remains largely equal, with 54 per cent female employees and an average gender pay gap of just 4.3 per cent, more than 8 per cent lower than the national average. However, we have to be honest that there are still some challenges. Our proportion of ethnic minority employees is approximately 12 per cent of our total workforce this year, which is less than 2 per cent of our total workforce this year. That is a disappointment.”
In the Palace’s report, it said the reduction in ethnic minority representation among staff was due to a combination of factors, including the fact that staff turnover fell last year. The reports said the palace now intends to move to a long-term target of having 18% of staff from ethnic minority backgrounds. It did not put a time frame on this.
“We recognize that more work needs to be done, and is already being done, to improve the diversity of our workforce,” James Chalmers said. “To this end, we have raised our long-term ambitions to build a future workforce in line with UK census data for people from ethnic minority backgrounds, underpinned by an updated inclusivity and diversity strategy designed to accelerate sustained and targeted progress.”
Kensington Palace also released figures today showing its staff are 73% female and 27% male, with 14.9% from an ethnic minority background.
(From city and country)
Over the years, BP has included their pitiful diversity numbers before, but they never actually break down where these people of color actually work in the household. I’d be willing to bet that the 12% of “ethnic minorities” are almost exclusively in junior positions and/or were assigned palace work via the military. Same with Kensington Palace, although this appears to be the first year that KP have released their diversity numbers. Pale and old are the order of the day, and both Charles and William are surrounded by old white men with outmoded views. I’d be willing to bet that KP’s 73% female employees also have white male bosses.
Images courtesy of Cover Images.
