It’s Christmas. It’s almost the end of the year and it’s the latest episode of Fearless Diversity.

Rachel and Simon polish off the twelve days of Christmas with their final six key issues of 2025. 

In place of geese, swans, maids, ladies, lords, pipers and drummers, they surprised themselves to discover nuance, ethical dilemmas, previously unthought thoughts and a continuation of their honest examinations rather than ideological assumptions.

Looking back over the issues that have touched people’s lives and lit our passions this year we explore assisted dying, academic freedom, data and privacy, impartiality and shifting media ownership and why we prefer politicians to be frank and straight-talking whatever party they come from. 

Exploring our uncertainties as much as our convictions, we continue to have the conversations you want to have. 

So, “Happy Christmas” to everyone who listens and we’ll see you in 2026. 

UK Government Data (Use and Access) Bill 2025: 

Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 - Parliamentary Bills - UK Parliament

House of Lords debate the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life Bill):

https://parliamentlive.tv/event/index/2cbcf49e-9d0e-491d-a7e3-177077d403a0

Shabana Mahmood Speech and Question from the House of Commons on Asylum (minute 18:12 for the section referred to in Fearless Diversity)

https://parliamentlive.tv/event/index/78fe5a1e-493e-41a0-aa45-72036ba8434c?in=18:12:55

Kemi Badenoch Budget Response:

https://parliamentlive.tv/event/index/bd93fcba-e4f0-4175-b6ef-701621a2d6c2

‘I dared to question gender theory at Cambridge. Students carved Terf into my door’

https://archive.ph/mLJV3

Michelle Shipworth

UCL professor in academic freedom row speaks out on China

https://tinyurl.com/v6tj95as

Ofcom statement in response to High Court Judgment: GB News v Ofcom

https://tinyurl.com/3hsccp8a

Data Use & Access Act - Commentary by Pinsent Mason law firm

https://tinyurl.com/mryynhpn

GB News’ Martin Daubney salutes Trump’s cavalcade

https://tinyurl.com/hvn6rtwk

Saimo Chahal – Bindmans solicitor in a number of assisted dying cases – 

Info on the case of Omid

https://tinyurl.com/2tucfs9e

Transcript of Evidence from Jane Nicklinson and Saimo Chahal, on Behalf of Tony Nicklinson to the Commission on Assisted Dying – Canada - dated December 14,2010

https://tinyurl.com/3ntjcepr

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In this week’s episode, Rachel and Simon pull on their Christmas jumpers and look back at a year of fearless diversity. But instead of a partridge, turtle doves, French hens, calling birds, gold rings and geese, their first “Six Days of Christmas” are:

📌 The Employment Rights Bill

📌 The surge in ADHD, autism and wider mental health diagnoses

📌 What really happened to the so-called “diversity backlash”

📌 The national shame of violence against women – and what it means for workplaces

📌 Significant employment tribunals and the defence of lawful belief

📌 The aftermath of the Supreme Court judgment in For Women Scotland

Threaded through all six are a hard, practical set of questions:

• Is there a widening gap between ambitious language (on rights, inclusion, safety, mental health) and the real machinery of guidance, training and governance needed to deliver?
• Does our capacity, competence and confidence in people management lag what these pressures demand?
• Are law and policy being asked to settle deep social disagreements, leaving institutions exposed, anxious and unsure how to act without legal or reputational blowback?
• Are people simply tired of performative gestures and hungry for visible fairness, safety, and competence instead?

Amid culture-war noise and contested change, is there finally an appetite for more grown-up, practical responses in workplaces and in public life?

Join Simon and Rachel for this week’s Christmas special, and feel free to comment, share, disagree and enjoy.

RESOURCES:

Sir Charlie Mayfield interviewed by Anna Foster on Radio 4’s Today Program (05/12/2025)

https://tinyurl.com/3k6e2dht

Charlie Mayfield Review Keep Britain Working Review: Discovery - GOV.UK

Sarah Everard’s mother’s statement on her daughter’s murder

https://tinyurl.com/5amt8kux

Lady Elish Angiolini (former solicitor general for Scotland) on the release of The Angiolini Inquiry Part 2 First Report: Prevention of sexually motivated crimes against women in public

https://tinyurl.com/3u9yp656

Higgs v Farmor’s School – Appeal Court judgement

https://tinyurl.com/29sd8ayy

Miller v University of Bristol

The original judgement

https://tinyurl.com/49exnbjv

This is being appealed – the hearing was on 12-14th November 2025. Judgement not yet handed down

People Management

“UK companies abandon EDI initiatives in response to Trump’s anti-diversity rhetoric, survey finds” – Nov 3rd 2025 

https://tinyurl.com/3psxsmvu

Minister, Baroness Smith - Clarity on Supreme Court Judgement, November 2025

https://hansard.parliament.uk/Lords/2025-11-05/debates/33DF0162-75ED-447D-9384-EE32A6422193/details#contribution-1457B511-21E8-40D1-9391-FEE39EF8751E

The Prime Minister “the Supreme Court Judgement must be implemented in full and at all levels”, November 2025

https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2025-11-12/debates/92F8A914-4D55-4672-A617-A8D393E3504F/details#contribution-38146318-67B4-4A4B-8836-5DE3503797FA

Supreme Court judgement in April

For Women Scotland Ltd (Appellant) v The Scottish Ministers (Respondent)

For more about Rachel: Who Is The Fearless Facilitator? - Fearless Facilitator

For more about Simon: Who We Are – Diversity by Design

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Tearing Down the Wall: A Fearless Diversity Look at Fairness

Three kids, a wall, and those famous different-sized “equity” boxes. Helpful metaphor or the reason that to so many leaders and colleagues think the boxes look like unfairness?

In this episode of Fearless Diversity, Rachel and Simon start with that much-used cartoon and end up somewhere much more interesting: how do we remove the barriers to people’s talent and empower them to achieve to the extent of their potential?  

Are those “equity” boxes giving people the perception of an unfair advantage? To create greater opportunity shouldn’t we be taking the wall down altogether? And what does that look like if you’re a CEO, HRD, regulator or team leader trying to recruit, promote and manage fairly without getting lost in culture-war noise?

Rachel brings her psychological-safety and trauma-informed leadership lens; Simon brings his unique approach to diversity rooted in goals and outcomes rather than gestures and politics. Together they unpack quotas, merit, the “tyranny of low expectations”, neurodiversity, and why pointing and punishing rarely changes anything.

We ask how we can (to quote the great black American profess Glen Loury “acknowledge racial disparities without invoking the language of white supremacy. And … pursue equality without promoting guilt or resentment”?

 If you’ve ever wondered:

• When does equity become unlawful?
• How do we support people who meet the skills threshold to succeed?
• How do we challenge racism and sexism without turning everything into oppressor vs oppressed?

…this one’s for you. Smart, practical, occasionally spicy and definitely more useful than another slogan on a slide.

How woke and anti-woke erase blackness We must see race, but not be ruled by it

By Glenn Loury

https://shorturl.at/78pWr

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In this special Fearless Diversity episode, we press pause on the culture war and lean into a quieter kind of courage: listening.

Rachel and Simon are joined by Jacqui Gavin BEM, a trans woman, former civil servant and long-time equality campaigner, for a deeply human conversation about growing up as Scott in 1970s Scotland, beginning transition as a teenager, and what it means to describe being trans not as an identity but as a process.

Across the hour, they explore:

• The nine-year-old who “wanted to find the girl” and the 21-year-old stepping out with fear and liberation to live as a female.
• Why Jacqui calls herself “female with a trans history” and how she still lovingly carries Scott with her.
• What both sides of the sex and gender debate get wrong about each other, and why Jacqui sees herself not as a fighter but as a bridge-builder.
• Letting children be children, respecting women’s boundaries, and learning to “earn your place in the world” through mutual respect, not demands.

This is not a shouting match about policy. It’s three people, in a conversation, talking honestly about fear, dignity, belonging and how to stay human when the world is loud, angry, and certain.

If you’ve ever felt confused, anxious, or silenced by the noise around sex and gender, this gentle, thoughtful episode is an invitation: you’re allowed to just ask.

For more about Rachel: Who Is The Fearless Facilitator? - Fearless Facilitator

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“A crisis of trust at the BBC” 

The BBC is weathering one of the fiercest storms in its modern history. The now-infamous Prescott memo, an “egregious” Trump edit, open rows over coverage of the Israel-Gaza conflict, and bitter battles about sex and gender have left Britain’s national broadcaster facing accusations of bias from every direction.

But is this just another skirmish in the Beeb’s long and noisy war with its critics – or has something deeper gone wrong inside the corporation once trusted above all others?

That’s the question explored in the latest episode of Fearless Diversity, where psychological safety specialist Rachel Cashman joins broadcaster, writer and veteran BBC contributor Simon Fanshawe to ask what the turmoil really reveals about power, leadership and culture inside Britain’s biggest media institution.

Drawing on Simon’s decades writing and presenting BBC programmes and Rachel’s work with leaders under intense scrutiny, the pair dissect the growing crisis from every angle.

They explore:

·      What the leaked Prescott memo uncovers – from the Trump editing debacle to the shifting coverage of Gaza, Israel, and the gender debate.

·      How cost-cutting, centralised editorial “hubs” and tight internal controls may have narrowed the breadth of voices and opinions on air.

·      Why two things can co-exist: that many have had fulfilling, proud careers inside the BBC while serious questions about its impartiality and internal culture remain unanswered.

·      The chilling effect of reported instructions not to question the board – and why any “don’t ask” culture is a red flag in modern leadership.

·      How institutions truly lose trust: not when they admit mistakes, but when they spin, minimise or defend instead of confronting uncomfortable truths.

Rachel unveils her FEARLESS crisis framework – a model for organisations in trouble – and applies it directly to the BBC, suggesting bold steps the broadcaster must take to rebuild its credibility.

Simon, meanwhile, delivers the uncomfortable verdict: that the deeper failure is one of journalism itself. The Director-General, he argues, must act first and foremost as editor-in-chief – and ensure editors lead with impartiality, serving the audience, not their own opinions.

Together they make the case for renewing the BBC’s founding purpose: that public service broadcasting still matters, that opinions should never become the story, and that courage and transparency are the lifeblood of any institution hoping to retain public trust.

For anyone steering organisations through controversy, managing reputational risk, or simply trying to make sense of what’s happened to the nation’s broadcaster, this is an unmissable listen.

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On November 1st at about 7o’clock a man, now identified as Anthony Williams, is alleged to have stabbed eleven people on a train from Doncaster to Kings Cross. The grainy footage showed that he was black. And up went a racist balloon. Long before anyone knew anymore about him, the tweets were out. He was a terrorist, an asylum seeker……and from others that he was “British born”.

This week Rachel and Simon unpack how fear, social media dynamics, and confirmation bias turn these tragedies into fuel on the fires of the culture-wars. How transparent should the police be about reporting the ethnicity of alleged perpetrators? Why do people prefer to confirm their own prejudices – literally to pre-judge – before waiting for the facts? What does academic research tell us about how easily swayed we are to see racism, sexism by or, in the other, view terrorism or issues with immigration and assumptions about race? How does jumping to those conclusions poison our ability at work to interrupt distorted narratives and creating the safety, clarity, and accountability that real dialogue requires form us to get along or work together.  And what can a chippy in North Leeds give us about how to do that? 

Advisory: contains discussion of racism and violent incidents. Ongoing legal proceedings are referenced without speculation.

Sonia Sodha’s column My column for @TheNewWorldmag on what lies behind the rise of racism in politics

https://shorturl.at/JpBWh

Simon’s article about Kate Clancy in the New Statesman

https://shorturl.at/wRqpC

Is Britain becoming more violent? - A look at the data

By Fraser Nelson

https://shorturl.at/MZHdL

Leeds chippy batters down faith barriers

https://shorturl.at/DEtE3

Kate Clanchy - Uncancelled at last Four years on, are we any wiser?

https://shorturl.at/0qNjO

Kids, critics and the courage of Kate Clanchy

By Victoria Smith

https://tinyurl.com/3e25u8ns

Rutgers research

Instructing Animosity: How DEI Pedagogy Produces The Hostile Attribution Bias

https://tinyurl.com/28hjwmp2

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For more about Simon: Who We Are – Diversity by Design

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When HR leaders become the organisation’s emotional shock absorbers, who absorbs the shock for them and how do we keep culture lawful, human, and high performing?

In a post-pandemic world of blurred boundaries, rising neurodiversity needs and intensifying polarisation, HR leaders are being asked to carry it all: grief, grievance, and the governance. In this episode, we explore how to move from process-heavy firefighting to relational leadership and creating genuine psychological safety (not a “corporate cuddle”), maintaining accountability, and staying squarely within the law.

What do people want from their jobs in 2025 vs. what the job requires, we ask: how do leaders regulate fear, rebuild trust, and re-set the contract at work? If you’re holding pain, policy, and performance all at once, this one’s for you.

With deep respect for HR leaders and a mindset for legality, proportionality, and public interest. We separate psychological safety from well-being, agency from entitlement, and accountability from punishment. And we’ll offer practical moves to help HR step out of constant rescue mode and lead as strategic partners without become trapped in procedure. 

For more about Rachel: Who Is The Fearless Facilitator? - Fearless Facilitator

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CRISIS OF TRUST: HOW TO FIX WHAT'S BROKEN IN BRITAIN'S BOARDROOMS, BEDROOMS AND BEYOND

Trust is in dangerously short supply these days. From politics to once-dependable institutions and even within close-knit teams, confidence is fast evaporating. Trust is easy to lose and hard to earn. It’s built over time but lost in an instant - whether in personal relationships, businesses or in the corridors of power.

In this week’s episode, Rachel and Simon discuss and debate how we built it, lose it, regain it and cope with it - starting with the individual. Want people to trust you? It’s all about being the same on the inside as you are on the outside. “Trust starts in the mirror, not in the memo,” as Rachel puts it.  When it comes to relationships is honesty is non-negotiable? Or can we carry a certain amount of mistrust? In business too, is trust all? Effective leaders know how to be straightforward with staff and the public, take personal responsibility for decisions and engage in authentic and transparent dialogue.​ Does building trust in teams or organisations demands honest self-assessment, clear purpose, and a willingness to engage constructively with conflict?

And when trust is lost in politics, rebuilding competence is what’s needed. Not to be confused with PR or reputation management. The public expects politicians to act not spin. From the Post Office scandal to grooming gangs, from Ratner calling products ‘crap’ to BP CEO pretending the spread of the oil spill is negligible, trust in public bodies crumbles when facts are swept under the carpet and victims’ voices are denied. Ordinary people can cope with uncertainty, but they won't stomach dishonesty or hypocrisy, and when leaders bury the truth, it's not just the direct victims who lose faith - the whole public suffers.​

Key takeaways 

·      Self before system: inner alignment beats performative signalling.

·      Rupture is inevitable; repair is a skill (truth + accountability + consistency).

·      Don’t confuse comms with credibility; behaviour is the message.

·      Values work only when tied to observable behaviours and consequences.

·      In high-stakes issues, be trauma-informed, not optics-led.

Practical actions for leaders 

·      Schedule one “repair conversation” you’ve been avoiding; name the rupture and propose a path back.

·      Replace one all-staff email with 10 targeted 1-1s that rebuild credibility.

·      Translate your values into two columns: “Looks like / Doesn’t look like” and use it in PDRs.

·      In contentious debates, separate transparency (honest facts) from disclosure-dumping (deflection).

·      Adopt “listen to hear → reflect → respond” as your process for dialogue. 

BOSTON CONSULTING TRUST INDEX

https://shorturl.at/zmmzQ

REBUILDING TRUST

https://shorturl.at/XOVT7

For more about Rachel: Who Is The Fearless Facilitator? - Fearless Facilitator

For more about Simon: Who We Are – Diversity by Design

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This week, Simon & Rachel get gloriously uncomfortable.

It’s a rollicking debate with sharp edges, full-throttle disagreement in part, and one very live question who’s it actually worth arguing with anymore?

Simon’s just back from the Battle of Ideas, where he shared space with people he vehemently disagrees with and has mixed feelings as a result. Rachel, on the other hand, reckons the whole thing’s just too right-wing for her vibe, recognising she may be reinforcing her own biases, and worries about the reputational risk of legitimising certain viewpoints. So, it’s a conversation of the wrestle with our own tensions about who to talk to about when and when. 

Is the real dividing line today Left versus Right or liberals versus authoritarians, on both sides?

And what if, whisper it, the Right might actually be right that Britain’s true clash is between the elite and the people?

New research from More in Common and Arch 10 reveals just how out of touch the progressive and public-sector “elites”, including many driving diversity and inclusion, have become from the wider public, especially on sex, gender, patriotism, and free speech.

Battle of Ideas had everything: a panel on the Supreme Court judgment, disbelief that trans people even exist, a tweet labelling DEI “a virus,” and yet a surprisingly diverse audience and a bromance brewing between Simon and Andrew Doyle in over Simon’s taste in coloured couture.

In the end, the duo agrees on one thing: it’s time to move past the culture wars.

What we need are Fearless Diversity gatherings with rosé, civility, and the courage to disagree well. Who wants to join us?

Fearless Diversity where nuance still has the mic.

RESOURCES

Arch10 “Two Britains”

https://shorturl.at/TC89q

More in Common – “Progressive Activists”

https://shorturl.at/eLwW6

Battle of Ideas

https://www.battleofideas.org.uk/

Ben Cooper (one of the KCs who represented in the Supreme Court) explainer on the Supreme Court judgement in For Women Scotland

https://shorturl.at/0QRCX

For more about Rachel: Who Is The Fearless Facilitator? - Fearless Facilitator

For more about Simon: Who We Are – Diversity by Design

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Fearless Diversity: Identity, Civility, and the Courage to Disagree

At a time when public debate feels less like dialogue and more like a contest over whose feelings matter most, Simon and Rachel take a breath, and a stand, for nuance, empathy, and civility.

Because identity whether shaped by sex, gender, class, ethnicity, or belief has become both the lens through which we see the world and, too often, the wall that divides us.

In this episode, they explore what happens when politics becomes a battle of tribes rather than a search for solutions. From the far-reaching debates at the recent FiLiA conference, Europe’s largest feminist gathering, to boardrooms wrestling with diversity data, the same question runs through it all: how do we honour difference without hardening into division?

Rachel argues that class still defines how women experience both oppression and opportunity, and Simon challenges the orthodoxy of identity politics itself. Together, they unpack how leaders can use diversity data not as a flag to wave but as a lens for understanding asking, what are we really trying to learn here?

Because perhaps, in an age of permanent outrage, the most radical act isn’t shouting louder it’s listening better.

If you enjoy listening to us, please do like and share

Resources:

FILIA. https://www.filia.org.uk/

Fire Service Black Members - National Conference 2025 https://shorturl.at/A92tV

Black Excellence in Governance https://shorturl.at/lHFn3

For more about Rachel: Who Is The Fearless Facilitator? - Fearless Facilitator

For more about Simon: Who We Are – Diversity by Design

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