Have the Royal Marines gone woke?

It is rare for a former paratrooper like myself to run to the aid of our traditional friendly rivals, the Royal Marines – unless they have been taken prisoner in a combat zone. But in this instance I feel I must defend them against accusations of going woke.

The Sun reports this week that exercises at the Marines’ Commando Training Centre have been the subject of politically correct name changes. Exercises ‘Final Thrust’ and ‘Violent Entry’, now deemed too sexualised for modern mores and norms, have been respectively renamed ‘Commando Forge’ and ‘Green Salamander’.

Of course, the military changes the name of operations and exercises all the time. Three out of the five British and Canadian D-Day beach landings were originally named after fish – ‘Swordfish’, ‘Goldfish’ and ‘Jellyfish’. That was until Winston Churchill objected to the idea of soldiers risking their lives to seize territory in the name of sea creatures. Two were renamed ‘Sword’ and ‘Gold’, and ‘Jellyfish’ was rechristened ‘Juno’.

The rationale for the Commando Training Centre’s decision does, however, raise questions. If a newly forged Royal Marine commando is deterred from service, or their training hampered in some way, by the notions of thrusting or violence, one wonders how well that marine might cope with someone shooting at him.

Having commanded Royal Marines, I can attest that thrusting and violence are not things that unduly worry them on a daily basis. I sincerely doubt the feelings of my green-beret-wearing, erstwhile colleagues will have been the reason for the change. Far more likely is the impact of the Equality Act 2010 and its public-sector equality duty, which came into force in 2011.

The Equality Act, a parting gift from the then outgoing Labour government, places the equality duty on all public-sector institutions, including the armed forces. They must consciously consider the need to eliminate unlawful discrimination, advance equality of opportunity and encourage ‘good relations’ between those who share a protected characteristic and those who do not.

As with the RAF’s decision to change ‘airman’ to ‘aviator’ and the Royal Navy’s decision to change ‘seaman’ to ‘seafarer’, the Royal Marines’ decision to change the names of certain exercises will likely have been driven by a fear of causing offence. Top brass will have clearly been concerned that certain language would alienate female personnel and be deemed discriminatory.

The MoD will go out of its way to avoid breaching the public-sector equality duty, an investigation by the Equality and Human Rights Commission, legal action or, worst of all, negative headlines involving accusations of sexism and other -isms. Such headlines strike more fear into the Ministry of Defence (MoD) and its generals, admirals and air marshals than the actual military threat posed by Russia, China or Iran.

The MoD will no doubt have played a role in the rebranding of Royal Marines training exercises. In my own experience as a civil servant (up until earlier this year), the MoD is filled to the rafters with diversity, equality and inclusion (DEI) enthusiasts. They insist on DEI policies’ vital contribution to the nation’s fighting power. This despite a lack of any evidence to support their case and plenty of challenging evidence to the contrary. Indeed, it is worth noting that in the DEI era, the MoD has made a hash of every campaign it has been involved in. Which shouldn’t be a surprise given that military conflicts are won by tough men doing rough deeds rather than pronouns in bios.

The MoD, however, is determined to encourage DEI initiatives. Scrutinise recent honours lists, and you will find military recipients of MBEs for achievements like transgender inclusion, establishing a ‘defence breastfeeding network’, setting up a Rastafarian network for 20 soldiers and a project to improve hygiene in the field for female soldiers.

Of course, this is not to denigrate the efforts these servicemen and women have made to help improve the lives of others. But the awards and honours heading their way do also show the MoD’s willingness to elevate these endeavours to the same level as deeds like running counter-terror operations, coordinating the recovery of a brigade of armour from Estonia and delivering counter-IED training in Africa – all of which have also earned MBEs for those involved.

It is easy to attack the Royal Marines for going ‘woke’. But critics should instead focus their ire on the legislation that mandates such preciousness, on the chain of command who live in fear of negative headlines and on the MoD civil servants who enforce DEI with an iron fist and reward behaviours that encourage it.

Andrew Fox is a writer and researcher specialising in defence.