A teenager in Wales might want to play video games, hang out with their friends or even, dare I suggest it, read a book. The Welsh government, however, would prefer they put on a headset and confront their ‘unconscious bias’. It has created a £1.2 million metaverse, the ‘world’s first anti-racist virtual world’, to teach Welsh teens about their ‘white privilege’. But this is only one element of an official commitment to end racism by 2030. Not today, not yesterday, but a specific year in the future.

The idea for an Anti-racist Wales Action Plan – ArWAP – was born following fervour around the Black Lives Matter movement, and an official plan followed in 2022. Now it reaches into almost every element of Welsh public, and private, life – from libraries to nurseries and museums to landlords. Even Welsh cakes aren’t safe.

One line in the ‘Logic Model’ of the updated ArWAP in 2024, with a foreword by then Labour first minister Eluned Morgan (Plaid Cymru is also supportive of the plan), revealed the ambition to change ‘the beliefs and behaviour of the white majority’, the 93.8 per cent of Welsh people, with results measured by a Race Disparity Evidence Unit. Nothing sinister-sounding there.

The plan starts, of course, with the past, and how to alter it. A colour-coded guide to historic sites, street names and buildings was developed ahead of ArWAP to mark the degree of ‘certainty and/or culpability’ in their links with slavery or colonialism. The Buccaneer Inn, Tenby, gets amber – ‘personal culpability uncertain’ – as its sign depicts a stereotypical pirate who ‘preyed on ships involved in the slave trade’, even if they were also ‘known to have racially diverse crews’. Columbus House, a modern office block that houses the Ministry of Justice’s asylum and immigration tribunal, is flagged as red for its ‘clear name association’ with Christopher Columbus. Road names after the British explorer Francis Drake are marked red too.

Then there was the £10,000 grant to ‘decolonise’ the Welsh cake, the sugar- and spice-laden treat that has been enjoyed across the country since the 19th century. The museum at David Lloyd George’s childhood cottage hired a government-funded ‘decolonisation consultant’ to change its approach to history. Guidance on statues warns that those of ‘powerful, older, able-bodied white men’ might be ‘offensive’ to modern viewers, citing Admiral Nelson, Thomas Picton and the Duke of Wellington as examples. Each move seems a little more absurd than the last.

An official blog post by Amgueddfa Cymru/Museum Wales, on its ‘Charter for Decolonising’ led to the assessment that slavery is ‘woven into the warp and weft of Welsh society’ and that there are objects requiring decolonisation ‘in every store, on every shelf, and in every gallery’. Comments on the post are less keen. A user called S. Borrett wrote: ‘Why should we be ashamed of our history? I’m proud of my country and this seemingly constant shaming of the UK and rewriting/hiding our past is shameful.’

It gets sillier. A government-funded report by Climate Cymru BAME suggested ‘dog-free areas’ be introduced as part of the Welsh government’s anti-racism action plan. Apparently ethnic minorities are not allowed to enjoy a dog run around the park. Bizarrely, the suggestion features in the report’s conclusions, but there are no other mentions of dogs in the full report.

Library staff, as part of a £130,000 project to address ‘colonial attitudes’ and create ‘new historic narratives’, could be trained to challenge the ‘dominant paradigm of whiteness’ through ‘critical whiteness studies’. School set-text lists are being reviewed for racist language, with the potential for future revisions by the Welsh exam board and the diversity and anti-racist professional learning (DARPL) group.

Nurseries have been told to be on the lookout for toddler hate crimes, with taxpayer-funded guidance for childminders – working with children aged 12 and below, including babies and toddlers – advising them to call police for ‘racist incidents’ that could be deemed a hate crime. If it is not a hate crime, childcare workers could offer more ‘age-appropriate learning support opportunities for the individual perpetrator’; if that doesn’t work there is a disciplinary flowchart to follow instead. A consultation for young people document on ArWAP highlights ‘white privilege’ and claims ‘dealing with racism is more important than ever’ – which seems to imply that, until recently, it wasn’t very important at all.

Private landlords are also told to participate in the target and encouraged to undergo Hate Crime Awareness training from Rent Smart Wales, the government service that landlords and agents must be registered with. In a new information document seen by The Spectator, Rent Smart Wales advises them to report hate crimes on a tenant’s behalf, since ‘tenants may not realise they’ve experienced a hate crime’. Consent, it says, is preferred but ‘not required’.

Nurseries have been told to look out for hate crimes, with childminders advised to call police for ‘racist incidents’

One Welsh landlord tells me: ‘This infantilisation of issues by governments is so depressing. You’re assumed not to have even half an ounce of common sense or intelligence… how do you even judge whether you have achieved a non-racist status? It’s objective tosh and absolute slop of the first order and this is all costing us money.’ The taxpayer-funded housing charity Tai Pawb even employs an anti-racism manager to help implement ArWAP.

A landlord’s base assumption, it seems, should be that their ethnic-minority tenant might not be able to realise they have been a victim of a hate crime – and that it should be reported even if the tenant would rather it wasn’t. Another Welsh landlord remarks: ‘You don’t dare curse the person who did a hate crime, just in case you get accused of it yourself. It is bonkers.’ Although the training is not mandatory, yet, the updated ArWAP floats integrating such initiatives into the Rent Smart Wales Code of Practice, which is statutory.

The foreword to the original ArWAP reads: ‘Individuals who believe that they are not racist but who are not actively engaged in eradicating racism may inadvertently be supporting the existing racialised system we are trying to change.’ So what does that say for the 2030 target? If people believe it is sorted so no longer actively engage in eradicating racism, are they racist once more? The oddly specific deadline almost has the feel of a closing-down sale (‘get it before it’s gone’), as though racism is allowed to exist for a few more years. As one Welsh source jokes: ‘The Welsh are incredibly racist towards the English. What are they going to do about that?’

In the Welsh metaverse, over-16s can explore the hardships faced by Romani travellers, the Bosnian genocide and famine in India under British rule, while in the real Wales they can enjoy underperforming health and education systems. But at least their Welsh cakes won’t taste like colonialism.