The PC Brigade Marches On

Britain seems to be ruled by politically-correct zealots, and it seems we have no way of escaping it.

“It was the election of Tony Blair’s Labour government in 1997.”

A common answer to a common question. When did political correctness begin to dictate our lives to us? That’s not to say that the Major government before that didn’t have its flaws. Just not as many as its successor.

Friday’s Daily Mail featured an article on the effects of PC on the amount of hugs a person receives per day. What with even minimal contact being deemed inappropriate, psychologists Dr. David Holmes of the Manchester Metropolitan University argued. Not that it will stop there.

Conkering is out on school playgrounds across Britain, because let’s face, a child could easily bruise a finger, or get hit by bits of a flying horse chestnut fruit. School trips have also had to be cut back, because someone could easily trip over some wet leaves on an adventure weak and get muddy, or get a splinter climbing up a tree to take the zip line.

Three years ago, Michael Howard took Tony Blair to task about the newest in a long line of forms the Labour government has introduced for the nation’s police officers. What with crime rates at an all time low, officers are obviously underworked and over paid. At least, they were in Mr. Blair’s world.

The form was a foot long, contained 40 questions, took on average seven minutes to complete, and was a requirement for every Metropolitan Police officer if they stopped someone in the capital. Mr. Howard pointed out at the time that if an officer was to stop a group of youths, out on a Friday or Saturday night, I would an officer an hour to complete the paperwork.

It doesn’t matter whether you support Labour, the Conservatives or the Liberal Democrats. Common sense should tell you just how ridiculous it’s becoming.

Mothercare changed the ending of a CD version of Humpty Dumpty in case young children found it upsetting. Which, of course, they have been for the past two hundred years.

Schools in Edinburgh were told that football scores should be reset at half time if a team was winning by five or more goals, and that the losing side should be allowed to field an extra two players. This is not the only time that football has been seen to be wrong by these zealots. Remember the old fashioned linesman? That was too politically incorrect, as well as being sexist, thus leading to the introduction of referees assistants.

Philip Davies, Member of Parliament for Shipley in West Yorkshire, is famous for his outspoken views on the effects of political correctness on this country. In his maiden speech to Parliament in 2005, he told of an experience working at an Asda store. “Whoever said “the customer is always right” never worked for Asda. I encountered the customer who accused us of being racist towards Irish people, because we sold “thick Irish sausages”. Trying to persuade her that “thick” related to the sausages and not to the Irish was beyond me.”

Labour’s favourite think tank, the Institute of Public Policy Research, published a report last week recommending that Christmas was downgraded to encourage diversity. Not that we haven’t all heard that before. Cases involving wearing of crucifixes in the work place have raged for the past year, as have those of Muslim women wearing the Niqab and Burqa.

And whilst most of us are can see how downright stupid Britain is becoming, it seems those in the corridors of power seem to be more intent on carving their own legacies than leaving officer with a stable, thriving multi-cultural society. It seems that in hindsight, Blair’s legacy will be one of a nation untrusting of politicians, even more so than before he came to power, who are worse off than when he began his tenure at Number Ten.

The so called “nanny state” seems to be gaining more power, with Gordon Brown’s announcement in the Queen’s Speech that he was to raise the school leaving age to eighteen. Despite £885m spent on truancy since 1997, the Labour government has failed to cut truancy. And following in the footsteps of his predecessor, Mr. Brown does the one thing he knows how to do: keep digging.

And that’s without even starting on obesity. Not that Britain’s Premier is a particularly good example to the two in five Britain’s that are overweight, and one in five that are obese.