Euan McColm: The under-qualified and over-promoted are everywhere, at every level of society

There was nothing formal about these incidents (thank goodness, for that might have risked one ending with the presentation of a p45). Rather, I would be invited for a “quick chat” where a news editor or some other terrifying executive would outline the ways in which I had screwed up and make abundantly clear to me that the peg on which my jacket was hanging was growing shooglier by the minute.

I’ve no fond memories of these interactions. I found them unsettling. In some cases - because not all bosses are good bosses - I felt the criticism unjustified. But, now, I can see the reason for - and acknowledge benefit of - most of these formative experiences.

In common with anyone who else who takes up a trade, I was an apprentice, dependent on those who knew what they were doing for guidance. They taught me how to shape a news story and how to keep within the law and when I made a mistake, they made sure I knew about it (Let me tell you, if you get a name wrong in a report on a primary school sports day, you’ll never forget it).

Recently, I’ve found myself gripped with nostalgia for the days when there were adults in the room, when experience and maturity were considered necessary if any organisation was to function properly.

The black farce that unfolded after US National Security Advisor Mike Waltz accidentally included a journalist in a group discussing air strikes on Houthi rebels in Yemen showed just what happens when clueless people are allowed to be clueless with impunity.

The simple fact Waltz added Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, to the group and then shared with him sensitive details about military operations, should have been enough for him to resign before he was sacked.

Instead, despite this being a clear breach of US national security - and of grave concern to any of America’s remaining allies - Donald Trump and his acolytes have rallied round Waltz, aggressively defending him and lashing out at anyone who dares point out his actions were as reckless as they were inexplicable.

The Waltz affair is a terrifying example of what can happen when there are no adults in the room; when stupid people, wildly out of their depth, are given responsibilities for which they are entirely unsuited.

This is not a uniquely American phenomenon. The under-qualified and over-promoted are everywhere, at every level of society.

The last Conservative government was filled with ministers who’d have struggled to find senior roles in the private sector. Likewise, Scotland’s SNP government is notable for the inadequacy of its its most powerful figures.

Across the public sector, we’re witnessing the costly effect of giving inexperienced people responsibilities for which they are supremely unqualified.

Barely a week passes, now, without a report of a new legal action raised by a woman bullied out of her job for refusing to accept the mantra “trans women are women”. Senior mangers across the NHS, the police, and local authorities have, en masse, bought in to activist ideology that says they must treat anyone as being of the sex they declare.

Last week, the University of Sussex was fined £585,000 by the Office for Students for its failure to uphold and protect the rights of former Dr Kathleen Stock, hounded out of her position as a professor of philosophy by activists after she dared speak in lectures about the reality of biological sex.

Management at some Scottish universities should consider themselves lucky that the OfS has no locus north of the border. A series of horrifying scenes at Edinburgh University, where a number of staff have encouraged and participated in aggressive and even violent protests against feminist events deemed “transphobic” should embarrass the leadership team.

Tomorrow, the makers of the documentary “Adult Human Female” begin a legal action against their own trade union - the Universities and College Union - over its failure to defend them against intolerable pressure and abuse from UCU members.

During the first weeks of a tribunal brought against NHS Fife by nurse Sandie Peggie, suing after she was suspended for complaining that she should not have to share a changing room, it emerged that the health board’s policy on who should use which changing rooms and other single-sex spaces was being driven by an equalities officer who appeared not to understand the organisation’s legal obligations to its female staff.

That tribunal will resume in July but we do not have to wait until the outcome of Peggie’s case to know that similar policy screw-ups in other organisations have already cost a lot.

Along with the OfS fine, the University of Sussex has already had to compensate Kathleen Stock for the ordeal she suffered while an employee.

The Open University, the Arts Council, and a number of local authorities have found that allowing the children to make policy decisions can be costly indeed. In each case, there was no adult in the room when decisions were made.

We can expect there to be a number of similar claims arising in the third sector where a number of organisations seem more focused on promoting gender ideology than on their declared missions. A friend with decades of experience in the sector remarked to me recently that he wasn’t sure precisely what 48 workshops and seminars - on a range of matters currently fashionable with activists - held by one organisation had done to help with its battle against poverty and homelessness.

From the top of government down, inexperienced leaders with unchecked power are causing chaos.

Might it be time for the return of the ferocious bollocking?