COLD SPRING

So why has ageism become so acute, particularly in recruitment? In my view, the answer lies partly in AI‑driven hiring systems — whether embedded in Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) or deployed through external platforms.

Every few months, a familiar storyline resurfaces in parts of the conservative press: HR is to blame for “wokeness”, for hypersensitive employees, for the supposed decline of robust leadership. The latest example — an article in today’s Telegraph (28 May 2026) by Martin Vander Weyen claiming “The Age of HR has turned everyone into a snowflake” — follows the same pattern. HR is cast as the villain.

I’m getting really cheesed-off with much of the UK press framing diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility (DEIA) through an unmistakably American lens. The language is imported wholesale — “affirmative action”, “quotas”, “positive discrimination”, “lowering the bar”. However; the UK doesn’t operate under anything resembling the US affirmative action model that the Trump Administration is railing against.