Woke Waste Weekly Audit
Here's how your hard-earned money is being spent by the "Conservative" Party
Intro: Every week I will compile all the woke projects Iâve found so far in a spending audit. I will update it as I go. Itâs a little bit depressing - but knowledge is power! So stay awoken, friendsâŚ
Up to ÂŁ20,000 - Dr. XYZ; A Medical Drag Transthology
Funder: Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)
Woke Waste: Funding for a film titled Dr. XYZ; A Medical Drag Transthology to celebrate 75 years of the NHS. It âwill engage the trans and non-binary community in Birmingham to help source their untold stories and experiences of accessing healthcare.â Participants are offered a âwellbeing officerâ to support them âwhile recounting what could be traumatic experiencesâ, and they will be âusing drag comedy satireâ.
ÂŁ19,237 a year (at least) - UKRI rate for PhDs - Trans Archaeology
Funder: AHRC
Woke Waste: A student is being paid a stipend by by AHRC of approximately ÂŁ18,622 a year to research trans archaeology. The student gave a lecture titled Bones Donât Care About Your Feelings: Challenging Transphobic Invocations of Archaeology in (Social) Media. A slide from the presentation asks: âWhat if I told you that when an archaeologist finds human remains, it is a fact that there [sic] only two choices for gender identification.â More here.
ÂŁ19,237 a year (at least), UKRIâs PhD rate - Growing Up Queer: 1790-1918 PhD
Funder: Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), Economic Social and Research Council (ESRG), both UKRI funded
Woke Waste: Suggested research questions for the Growing Up Queer PhD include âHow were race, gender and sexuality enfolded in personal and professional conceptualisations of queer childhood?â and âTo what extent did âqueerâ adults, many of whom married and had children of their own, reflect upon their own parenting? Another taxpayer-funded PhD is Podcasting and Pedagogy for the Planet: Examining the Nexus of Art, Entertainment, and Education Related to sustainability and climate change. Info about the PhD reads: âDo you love podcasts? Are you increasingly concerned about the looming climate emergency?â More here.
ÂŁ854,260 since 2018 - Protection Approaches (a hate-crime charity)
Funder: Government grants - including Department for Levelling Up and the Mayor of London
Woke Waste: Hate crime charity that uses terminology such as âcis-heteronormativeâ, and recommends that States consider: âdeveloping, adopting and implementing an inclusive, intersectional national strategy of atrocity preventionâ, as well as running âactive bystanderâ courses.
ÂŁ875,700 since 2019 - Stop Hate UK (another hate-crime charity - and there are way more)
Funder: Government grants and contracts
Woke Waste: Has a glossary of terms on its website including Acephobia, Intersectionality, Micro-Inequities and pronouns. Like Protection Approaches, its ideological position aligns more with Humza Yousaf/ the SNPâs Hate Crime Act than the UK Governmentâs position on gender issues.
ÂŁ627,710 (since 2019) - âRainbowâ Kayaking and LGBTQ+ socials
Funder: Government grants - including Camden and Islington Council
Woke Waste: Amount spent on a hate crime charity forum+, whose âcharitableâ activities include an art workshop to celebrate âqueer joy and creativityâ, a film club, cooking lessons, and LGBTQ+ âRainbow Paddlersâ Kayaking sessions (for adults).
ÂŁ19,237 a year (at least), UKRIâs PhD rate - UCLâs Legacies and Futures Project
Funder: UK Research and Innovation (UKRI)
Woke Waste: An academic who told the BBC that trans womenâs milk is as good as breast milk is working on a PhD project funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), a subsidiary of UKRI. It will investigate âsimilarities and differences between lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, nonbinary, intersex, and/or transgender (LGBTQIA+) pregnant persons and heterosexual pregnant persons whose gender matches with their assigned sex at birth (cisgender).â More here.
ÂŁ939,368 - FemIDEAS: Decolonising Sexual and Gender-Based Violence in Higher Education - at the University of Westminster Centre for Social Justice Research
Funder: UKRI
Woke Waste: Project about âdecolonising sexual and gender-based violenceâ in HE; includes âlived experience advisory groupâ; and stands for âFeminist, Intersectional, Decolonisation, Equality, Abolition, Survivor-centredâ.
More here:
ÂŁ614,582 - Soho Theatre
Funder: Arts Council England (ACE)
Woke Waste: Discussions of âtop surgeryâ and pronouns on its social media (âI did cut the tits offâ):
Identity politics galore - Pansexual Pregnant Piracy and 52 Monologues for Young Transexuals.
Has a comedy show that where âWhite audience members are encouraged to check their privilege at the doorâ:
ÂŁ250,000, Vercida (a âtech platform aimed at jobseekers looking to work for employers that place diversity, inclusion and well-being at the top of the agendaâ)
Funder: Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS)
Woke Waste: Published blog claiming Napoleonic Wars were part of âqueer historyâ; has Stonewall on its website and articles such as Creating safe and supportive spaces at the DWP.
More here:
ÂŁ15 million - The Globe
Funder: ACE
Woke Waste: Turned Joan of Arc into a ânon-binaryâ person in its production I, Joan; publishes a gender identity resource list; recommends Mermaids, Stonewall and Gendered Intelligence as charities/ places to get advice.
ÂŁ800,000 - University of Roehampton
Funder: UKRI
Woke Waste: Facilitating a project that says the âdisproportionate representationâ of William Shakespeare in the theatre has propagated âwhite, able-bodied, heterosexual, cisgender male narrativesâ. Piece here:
Obviously this is just the tip of the Wokeberg when it comes to the UKRI - more here and here, as well as my thread on X:
ÂŁ600,000 - BBC diversity drive
Woke Waste: Taxpayer money for âdiversity and inclusionâ roles, according to a Freedom of Information (FoI) request.
ÂŁ50k - BBC comedy scheme
Woke Waste: Total number of funds for one of its comedy schemes, which invites âunder-represented groupsâ to apply (using a rigid, woke definition).
Previous winners are an organisation âdeveloping women, gender minorities and queer voices in comedy in Northern Irelandâ; another a âNorth East-based comedy organisation supporting LGBTQ+ comedians by extending their programme to focus on workshops for LGBTQ+comedy performers in the regionâ.
ÂŁ16,828,042 - Southbank Centre
Funder: ACE
Woke Waste: Shows including: Pxssy Liquor's Office Christmas Party, ââa cabaret collective for queer gals and nb [non-binary] palsâ that provides an âantidote to the male-gaze saturated cabaret sceneâ.
Little Big Sing with Trans Voices, marketed for 5+:
âAfter witnessing the growing anti-trans rhetoric specifically aimed at children, both artists felt an urgent need to effect change and create a provision for mental wellness through music.â
âa tour around the human body with trans non-binary emergency doctor Dr Ronxâ, for ages 6-9.
Recent article about Ronx:
ÂŁ20 million (2022-23 report) - National Maritime Museum
Funder: DCMS
Woke Waste: Obsession with identity politics:
A Queer Love Tokens workshop including a chat âabout historical queersâ (for ages 12+):
My piece in January:
And lastly, a round up of ÂŁ7,858,082 AHRC-funded projects, including Cuteness In Contemporary Environmental Culture: Developing Ecopoetic Practice and Queerness in nineteenth-century transatlantic spiritualism: