Happy Day. The 'usually flawless' Daily Mail has today announced that the most famous Anti-PC fairytail is in fact a load of utter Bumwash. Winterval was never going to replace Christmas, not even to Placate those tricky Muslamics.
Cards on the table time. I like political correctness. I like having an agreed idea of what it is and isn't 'polite' to say, even if it can be a bit clumsy sometimes. I like that it isn't ok for a Government employee to use racist, sexist, homophobic or transgender baiting language with impunity.
I'm also a passionate advocator of free speech. Is this a contradiction? No... Of course not... Political Correctness doesn't sew up your lips, it can't stop you...All rules can be transgressed. All it does is formalise that some people aren't comfortable with what you might want to say. It makes you think about consequence... About context... About whether the words you say are actually communicating what you intend.
So... Back to Winterval. I've been arguing this with people for over ten years now. I know people who were living there at the time. I knew it was bunk. Whenever I got into the discussion about 'PC gone Mad' this came up, enshrined in the cloak of utter Factiness... "THEY BANNED CHRISTMAS!"
When I explained that they actually didn't I got eye rolls, I got called a naive lefty (I have no political allegiance as it happens) and mostly I got told I was wrong. It was national news, and I was just one person who disagreed.
And now it has been retracted, over a decade too late and with much less fanfare than it was announced... I feel my job is to make sure this gets out as much as possible... This story has done real damage, hitting a hot button for people usually untouched by Religious differences, driving a wedge between the mainly secular public and all those who 'wanted to steal Christmas'... Except they didn't... Of course they didn't... It was a desperate fantasy to sell newspapers and hammer home a terrified, neophobe worldview... a fantasy that has taken far too long to unravel but has finally disintegrated utterly... As I said at the start, Happy Day... I think it's time to celebrate...
Anyone wanna pull a Winterval cracker with me?
To finish, a quick and unconnected Theresa May Joke:
Will you let me in your country? The official guidelines won't... But Theresa May....
Arf.
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