Spike Reports: The woke love to claim that they are the authentic voice of the oppressed. But unlike past struggles for equal rights and civil liberties, the causes championed by modern ‘progressives’ – from trans rights to climate extremism – have the fulsome backing of the state. These campaigns tend to be astroturfed, rather than grassroots.

Take Pride, for instance. The early gay-rights campaigners who established the first parades faced extraordinary hostility. But now that Pride has become a celebration of trans and so-called LGBTQ+, all that has changed. Earlier this week, the Daily Mail revealed that police officers in Scotland have been encouraged to attend Pride parades as part of their official duties. Police Scotland said that they would pay their uniformed personnel to spend the day at LGBT marches. Presumably, getting covered in rainbow facepaint, or taking selfies with blokes in bondage gear, is a better use of their time than fighting crime.

To be clear, officers don’t even need to actually police the parade in order to get paid. They are just expected to take part and ‘show support’ for the LGBT community. Because, apparently, Pride ‘is a community-engagement opportunity, therefore participation will be considered a duty day’. Officers taking part can choose between either receiving normal pay or getting a day off in lieu.

The wisdom behind this move is questionable, to say the least, given that Police Scotland’s resources are currently spread incredibly thin. In March, they announced that officers would no longer be expected to respond to every crime, instead leaving ‘minor’ incidents uninvestigated. Already, non-emergency 101 calls can take up to 20 minutes to be answered. Encouraging officers to spend a day doing the ‘Macarena’ seems like a colossal waste of time and money – and indeed a stunning dereliction of duty.

Needless to say, it is not actually a police officer’s job to take part in Pride – or any kind of political demonstration. But officers are not alone in this. The Times reported this week that UK Sport, the government agency responsible for investing in Olympic and Paralympic sport, has been training athletes in how to be social activists.