Category Archives: PC Corner

Bigotry in the Classroom

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This week it was established beyond doubt that Birmingham City Council were complicit in the infiltration of the city’s schools by Muslim extremists. At best the councillors simply turned a blind eye to the overwhelming evidence that a substantial number of the city’s schools had been taken over by these fanatics (both school governors and teachers) who were bent on indoctrinating their pupils with bigotry and a hatred of all things western.

The Government-led inquiry revealed that children were taught, among other things, that–
– All non-Muslims will go to hell when they die.
– White children are lazy and white women have no morals.
– Women are inferior to men and wives are the property of their husbands to be used as their husbands see fit.
– Homosexuality is a crime against God and those who practice it should be jailed.
– The murder of the British soldier Lee Rigby and the Boston bombings last year were a fabrication of the truth by western governments.

In addition boys and girls were segregated in the classroom and some teachers insisted on teaching their classes Sharia Law insisting that it was superior to and should replace the law of the United Kingdom. Any teachers who objected to this indoctrination were paid off with sizeable severance cheques and made to sign non-disclosure agreements before leaving their employment.

Unsurprisingly, the nationwide response has been one of outrage that schoolchildren have not only been exposed to this blatant racism and bigotry but also anger that those who should protect them did nothing to prevent it whether through complicity, fear of the extremists or just through the muddled politically correctness of not wanting to offend a religious minority.

Perhaps the greatest irony in the whole sorry tale is that those councillors, who in a misguided attempt to show tolerance of the extremists and avoid claims of discrimination, will actually have achieved the opposite effect. The publicity generated by this scandal will not only add fuel to the fire of political parties on the extreme right but it will also have the effect of turning many previously mild and tolerant British people against Muslims. This would be unfortunate since no one doubts that the majority of Muslims are, like the rest of us, decent people who simply want to live in a climate of peace, tolerance and understanding.

Predictably, the Government has stated that this must never be allowed to happen again and that, in future, all schools throughout the land will be carefully monitored and regularly inspected. We must hope their actions are successful since no form of extremism, political, religious or otherwise, can have any part to play in the education of British children.

Please Sir!

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Last week, it was claimed by a leading academic that the terms “Sir” and “Miss” are both depressing and sexist  and in addition addressing a female teacher as “Miss” gives her lower status than her male counterparts.

Really? I would have thought that both titles are a sign of respect for the teachers and are necessary to help create an attitude of discipline in the classroom enabling pupils to work hard, acquire knowledge and prepare for life in the adult world.

As for the term “Miss” being sexist, that’s absurd. It may well be a long time since I was at school but I certainly don’t remember having any less respect for my female teachers simply because they were addressed differently than male teachers. There may have been  more fear of male teachers because they could throw a piece of chalk harder and could cuff you round the back of the head more painfully but that was probably the only difference!

This is just more politically correct nonsense from the same sort of people who refer to a chairman as a “chair” because the word “chair” doesn’t offend or exclude women. I’ve often wondered, do these “chair” lovers still refer to people as human or merely hu? What a crazy world we live in!

A Christian Country?

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Last weekend, our Prime Minister was in trouble for daring to refer to the United Kingdom as a “Christian country”. A number of public figures were so upset that they signed a petition denouncing such an outrageous statement, no doubt concerned about offending the non-Christians living in the UK.

What is wrong with us, if we are not a “Christian country” then what are we? I appreciate that there are many non-believers in this country and plenty of citizens who have different religious beliefs. Good, it shows that we are a fair and tolerant society embracing many varied beliefs and cultures.

The fact remains however that this country was built on Christianity, the Queen is the head of the Church of England and both Parliament and the Judiciary were founded on Christian beliefs. I’m not in the least bit religious but I recognise how important Christianity has been to our development and culture.

Yes, it’s true that Christianity is in decline in the sense that fewer and fewer people attend church regularly but that doesn’t mean that we lack Christian principles. We struggle enough with our sense of identity and the fact that our society is still largely run on Christian values and morals is surely to our benefit.

How can anybody be offended by what David Cameron said? I’m afraid that the reaction to his comment is just another example of the trendy political correctness that is choking the life out of this country and it should be dismissed as such.

Winning

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You’d think that English rugby’s governing body,  the Rugby Football Union (RFU),  would be keen to develop youngsters and provide the national team with a constant supply of top class talent.

If so, they are going about it in a funny way since they have just announced to schools and clubs that  there will be no more trophies for successful under-11 sides and if any game appears to be too one-sided players will be swapped around at half time to balance things up. The emphasis is to be on developing skills rather than the result of the game.

What kind of a lesson is that to give to kids on sport, or on life for that matter? Of course the result matters and a determination to win the game is surely the biggest factor in the development of game-winning skills in any sport. This just smacks, once again, of political correctness and a desire to tell children how life should be rather than how it really is.

Whether our politicians, teachers and sports administrators like it or not, the fact is, life is a competition. From the lowliest single-cell organism to mankind life is a competition resulting in success or failure, victory or defeat and sometimes life or death.

As  Vince Lombardi, the legendary and hugely successful American Football player and coach once said  “Winning isn’t  everything, it’s the only thing”.

 

The Perils of Paternity Leave

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Earlier this week the Government announced that from 2015 onwards fathers will be given a year’s leave to care for their new born babies. Very nice indeed for the fathers and their families but what about the businesses that employ those fathers?  I don’t mean large companies or corporations, with plenty of employees to go round, but smaller concerns such as family run businesses with a handful of employees each and every one of whom are vital to the success or failure of the operation.

 It’s all very well the Government issuing these people-pleasing edicts but what about those left to pick up the tab? Depending on which economist you listen to we are either still in or are just coming out of recession so isn’t it vital still that all hands remain firmly at the pump?

This, I’m afraid, is yet another example of government by liberal academics who have no experience of life in the real world and clearly no knowledge of how hard it is to run a business.

Allowing a key member of your company to take a year off because he has become a father may be a very nice humane gesture but it makes no business (or common) sense whatsoever.

Taking Care of Our Own

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I was listening to a Bruce Springsteen song the other day called “We take care of our own”. The lyrics that caught my attention were “Wherever this flag is flown, we take care of our own”. Now this song is not, as you may imagine, a call to arms and a glorification of war; in fact, far from it. Nevertheless, it did get me thinking about the different attitudes in the UK and the USA to veterans of our respective armed forces.

Today, is Armistice Day, a celebration of the peace declared on November 11th, 1918 when the First World War finally came to an end. In the USA it is called Veteran’s Day, a national holiday – and there is the first great difference. Can you imagine the whinging from the PC brigade if we dared to “glorify war” by making Armistice Day a national holiday?

I have just returned from the USA and witnessed, as I do every time I go there, how Americans honour and respect those men and women who fought for and sometimes died for their country. Veterans are given discounts in stores, priority boarding on commercial aircraft, concessions in restaurants and a whole host of other benefits. I even saw a sign by a highway proclaiming “The University of South Florida Honours our Veterans”. Can you imagine something like that happening in our country?

Every year, it seems that the wearing of the Royal British Legion’s  red poppy, that symbol of  ultimate sacrifice, creates more and more controversy. Why should this be when the proceeds of sale of those poppies help provide financial and other assistance for British veterans and their families?

Some public figures tell us that we shouldn’t feel obliged to wear a poppy and actually, for once, they are right. We shouldn’t feel obliged. No, we should feel honoured and proud to wear our poppies but not through any misguided or naïve notions of nationalism or even patriotism but from a simple gratitude for the sacrifices made on our behalf. Springsteen speaks for all of us, we should indeed take care of our own.

The Astronaut and the Monkey

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Last  week, England’s football manager, Roy Hodgson, did extremely well in ensuring that a slightly above average football team booked a place at next year’s  World Cup Finals. Unfortunately, the celebrations were tarnished because one of the players  leaked details of the manager’s half time team talk to the national press. Evidently, the talk (a private affair obviously meant only for the players present) featured a joke involving two astronauts and a monkey and the player took offence at what he perceived was a racist joke.

I am familiar with the joke, having first heard it about 20 years ago. It’s reasonably funny and the joke is not at the expense of the monkey but at the two astronauts whose only job is to feed the monkey, thus inferring that the monkey is more intelligent than they are. The astronauts, for the purposes of the joke, could be any nationality you wanted, whether English, Scots, Irish, French, American or whatever. It was just a playful laugh at the nation of your choice and, as I said, compliments the monkey at the expense of the chosen nation.

Clearly, the footballer who reported the joke to the press wasn’t bright enough to realise that and, as with everything else these days, the assumption by the Thought Police (see the novel, “1984”) was that the joke was an example of racial discrimination based on colour. What complete nonsense. With hindsight perhaps it would have been more politically correct and acceptable if the monkey had been described as albino!

All that aside, the story doesn’t reflect well upon the team’s spirit and morale ahead of what will be an extremely difficult tournament involving at least a dozen teams better equipped to win the trophy than England. If I were Hodgson (an undoubtedly decent man) I would leave no stone unturned in my efforts to find the Judas who betrayed his manager and thus his team-mates in such a scurrilous and cowardly manner. I would then make it clear to him that he will never again be selected to play for England whilst I remained manager. Go on Mr Hodgson, seek him out. The huge chip on his shoulder should make him readily identifiable.

 

More Politically Correct Nonsense

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The ITV sports presenter, Adrian Chiles, was in trouble this weekend after making a throwaway comment about Polish builders ahead of the England football team’s crucial World Cup qualifier with Poland tomorrow night. He outraged the PC brigade by inferring that if England were to win the game it would have a detrimental effect on the work currently being undertaken at his house by Polish builders.

Those humourless modern day puritans who, along with their equally dictatorial and boring colleagues from Health and Safety, dictate modern life didn’t get the joke but I wonder how many Polish folk took exception to Chiles’  comment?

Looked at from a different angle it could, in fact, be construed as a compliment. The fact that people refer to the hardworking Poles as their default builders is actually more a dig (no pun intended!) at the indolent English.

Perhaps he should have expanded his comment a little more; that many English are nowadays so lazy, so spoilt, so decadent and so reliant on state handouts that they cannot be bothered working and instead sit back, welfare-state purchased fag and beer in their hands watching Sky TV whilst Johnny Foreigner does it all for them. Just try finding a reliable English tradesman when you need one in a hurry. These days they are as rare as hens’ teeth in many parts of the country.

Perhaps the dullards who took offense at what was clearly a harmless joke (at least to anybody with half a brain) might like to consider that before they start criticising people like Chiles who, after all was only hinting at the unpalatable truth.

Recruiting for the Extreme Right

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It was reported last week that a school in Blackburn has ordered its pupils to wear a hijab (a head dress covering the girls’ faces) both in and OUT of school. What makes this calculating and overt act of religious control even worse is the fact that the school, the Tauheedul Islam Girls’High School, is state-funded, funded by taxes collected from ordinary UK citizens like you and me.

When I saw the headline (in last week’s Sunday Times) I did a double take. Surely that couldn’t be true? Then I read the article and, yes, it is. What on Earth are we coming to. What is happening to a country that has, since the Middle Ages at least, prided itself on practising the essential freedoms and religious tolerance? Why would we allow this to happen?

The misguided liberals, of all major parties, who have governed us for the last twenty years or so would say that my reaction (a reaction shared by the majority, I’m sure) is that of a reactionary bigot. Well is it? Here’s what a well-respected Muslim has to say.

Haras Rafiq, the former expert adviser to the Government on the prevention of Islamic extremism, prepared a dossier in 2011 raising concerns about the Tauheedul  Charitable Trust which aims to set up more schools like the one in Blackburn. The Government ignored his concerns  and granted permission for the setting up of three such schools. No doubt, more will follow. Rafiq was quoted as saying “I think it threatens to create young British Muslims who are not able to integrate in the wider society, who are living in isolation and outside the wider community”. He’s right and, as one concerned parent of a pupil at the Blackburn school said “Religion belongs in the place of worship or the home and not the classroom”.

What do the Government say to that? Surely, even the most blinkered liberal can see that their policies will do nothing but foster more resentment among right-thinking folk (both Muslims and otherwise) and ultimately will lead to more racial tension. If the Government wanted to act as a recruiting sergeant for the extreme right they couldn’t be doing a better job. Such fools.

Obese Children – Telling it Straight

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According to a report in Saturday’s Independent newspaper, health experts in the UK are being urged to be more diplomatic (make that PC) over the way they tell parents that their children are overweight. NHS guidance notes explain that letters to parents about their children should be “non-judgmental and positively phrased”.

In the past, following NHS testing,  parents with very overweight children would be informed that “Your child’s result is in the very overweight range. Doctors call this clinically obese”. The letter went on to outline the obvious health risks and further stated “You might be surprised your child’s result is in the overweight range. It can sometimes be difficult to tell if your child is overweight as they may look similar to other children of their age, but more children are overweight than ever before”. You can say that again!

That last sentence says it all and its truth is evidenced by a random check of your local high street during the school holidays. Times have changed for sure and those of us growing up prior to the 1980s will remember a time when it was rare that fellow children were overweight, so much so that virtually every class of say 30 children had one person referred to as “fatty” or something equally cruel. Nowadays, this wouldn’t happen since the term could probably apply to half the class! The satirical “Billy Bunter” books by Frank Richards would be completely wasted nowadays. A fat boy, continuously eating pies and cream cakes and avoiding exercise? So what, what’s funny about that? Perfectly normal behaviour in modern Britain.

Another article in yesterday’s Sunday Times was headed “Obesity alert over 20-stone 10 year-olds” and referred to a 10 year old girl weighing 24 stone (that’s 336 pounds) and an 11 year old boy weighing 23 stone. The article quoted NHS figures stating that 1 in 10 children is obese when they start primary school, aged 5 years and a third are obese when they leave, aged 11. In the past decade there has been a four-fold increase in the number of children and teenagers admitted to hospital with obesity-related conditions.

So, in the middle of what is quite clearly a national crisis (in fact the crisis affects the whole western world) the NHS says that, in toning down the letters to parents, “it is important to consider that parents receiving the letter may be sensitive to the information and feel that their parent skills are being criticised”. Well, so what! With the obvious exceptions of children who cannot help their weight through medical or psychological conditions, many parents deserve to be criticised. They should think about what they allow their children to eat, they should stop banishing them to their bedrooms all day to play their computer games and should encourage them to get out in the fresh air and if possible to play sport.

Politically correct language by the NHS isn’t going to help solve the problem. Parents need to be told the truth, in blunt, clear and unambiguous terms. Your child is overweight and needs your help. Do something about it.