Do they have quotas at GCHQ?

MI6 is also very woke these days.

Charlie Higson wrote a James Bond novel a while ago where the villain was a thinly veiled Nigel Farage and Bond's inner monologue (fretting about "populism" etc) was remarkably similar to a David Aaronovitch column.

It was not popular with Bond fans, but the intelligence services do reflect the state ideology.

have you not understood how this is supposed to work?

if you have 2 equally applicable candidates and one is a middle-class white bloke, and the other is a black woman, you employ the black woman because at GCHQ black women are a minority.

It has nothing to do with ability - they are both equally able.

The number of people who simply don't understand this (and i include many DEI officers in organisations) is staggering.

I think there is an increasing misunderstanding about attempts to make sure a work force is more representative of the community it serves.

And lets not forget that women have benefited from this.

Its really stupid headlines from chronically ill informed statements like Trump (trying to imply a fatal air crash was because of what the US calls DEI).

And as others have said, given that in the UK we have a very diverse population in terms of beliefs, culture, etc., etc., the idea that white public school boys will give us the best service is ridiculous.

Because some employers may drift into positive discrimination, which isn't legal in the UK, doesn't mean that others shouldn't make an application process open and accessible so as to end up having a work force that is representative of the community.

Thanks for posting this.
As I thought, they are looking for applications from a wider spread of candidates, but that's just getting your foot in the door, not getting the job.

My workplace guarantees an interview to candidates who meet the essential criteria for the job and who have a protected characteristic. I think this is a reasonable approach.

You do need diversity in jobs like intelligence though. It's not wokeness. The lack of diversity (and possibly being stuck in cold war patterns of thinking) was thought to be a factor in the CIAs failure to see 9/11 or correctly assess how much of a threat Bin Laden was. If course, Bin Laden also misjudged Americas reaction because he didnt understand American political culture.

You need people with a wide range of language abilities. But also a knowledge of cultural nuances. Even the UK and the US have had massive misunderstandings (e.g. over what "tabling an idea" or "a spot of bother"). And that's two countries with a shared language and close history. There's no point decoding the enemies secret communications if no-one understands the subtle nuances.
A really tragic example would be that in Iraq people sometimes signal to go forward by stretching their arm out with their palm open and closing and opening their fingers in a beckoning motion. In America standing with your ✋ like this means Stop Now. An obvious recipe for disaster when you have soldiers at check points nervous about car bombs and families trying to cooperate.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-49582852

The Equality opportunity section below for any who can't open the link. Looks fairly standard to me

Equal opportunities
At GCHQ diversity and inclusion are critical to our mission. To protect the UK, we need a truly diverse workforce that reflects the society we serve. This includes diversity in every sense of the word: those with different backgrounds, ages, ethnicities, gender identities, sexual orientations, ways of thinking and those with disabilities or neurodivergent conditions. We therefore welcome and encourage applications from everyone, including those from groups that are under-represented in our workforce such as women, those from an ethnic minority background, people with disabilities and those from low socio-economic backgrounds.

No.

Many organisations have targeted recruitment campaigns to encourage applicants from under represented groups - but thats done on the basis that you can only genuinely select the best candidate if you’re getting applicants from across the potential candidate pool. If a portion of that potential candidate pool are ruling themselves out because of assumptions about stereotypes then you can’t operate on a meritocratic basis.

I don't think quotas are legal in the UK.

I can't open the link , but judging from the sentence you quote, it looks like they want to broaden the range of applicants they get, and then the merit kicks in - the best candidate gets the job, but the best from a wider choice of candidates.