‘INSANITY!’ Cash-strapped council lambasted over ‘complete madness’ as it prepares to shell out for ‘unconscious bias’ staff training

An independent councillor has launched a scathing attack on GB News over plans by Argyll and Bute Council to introduce ‘unconscious bias’ training for staff amid a financial crisis.

Councillor Alastair Redman, who represents Kintyre and the Islands ward, criticised the SNP-led council’s priorities during a time of service cuts and tax increases.

“Not only are there cuts to services, but increases on taxation,” Redman told GB News, highlighting concerns over both council tax rises and a proposed visitor levy.

The council is currently grappling with a £9million budget deficit for the coming year.

To address this shortfall, officials are considering raising council tax by at least five per cent, following the Scottish Government’s recent lifting of the council tax freeze.

The local authority is also set to decide next month whether to implement a visitor levy as an additional revenue stream.

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Redman warned the proposed visitor levy “will have a detrimental effect on our tourist industry and hospitality sector.”

Despite the financial pressures, council bosses are planning to employ trainers to address staff members’ unknown biases regarding minority and protected groups.

Fraser Hudghton, director of the Free Speech Union in Scotland, strongly condemned the initiative, stating: “Unconscious bias training is the preferred means of the woke Stasi to get us all confessing what terrible beings we are.”

“The problem is it’s a lot of garbage and only increases prejudice where previously there was none,” Hudghton added.

Redman particularly questioned the training’s focus on certain concepts. “In what way is masculinity toxic? In what way are white people privileged? The racial demographics of Scotland are 94.5 per cent Caucasian,” he said.

He challenged the notion of privilege based on race, stating: “The notion that somehow some of the poorest in society are privileged because they happen to be a certain skin colour is insanity.”

The councillor emphasised this wasn’t solely an SNP initiative, noting it was backed by a “SNP-Lib Dem-Labour-Green Party coalition.”

Argyll and Bute Council responded to the controversy, stating to the Daily Mail: “We are exploring options for training in a number of areas and no decision has been taken yet.”

The plans have also raised concerns from equality experts. The Equality and Human Rights Commission has warned about potential negative outcomes from such training.

The Commission found “there is potential for back-firing effects when participants are exposed to information that suggests stereotypes and biases are unchangeable.”