MP Philip Davies on 'battle against political correctness'

We have sadly recently lost a great Yorkshireman - the straight-talking, no-nonsense former press secretary to Margaret Thatcher – Sir Bernard Ingham.

Sir Bernard continued making his views known until the end and his abundance of common sense will be sorely missed.

Just a few weeks ago he was lamenting political correctness and what he called the “wokerati”. He said they have “long ceased to surprise the common man with their idiocies”.

He previously said: “The insidious move from a democracy in which the majority rule through Parliament to dictatorship by a ragbag of minorities is frightening.

“They now control the thinking of a vast area of our national institutions and commercial companies, which, judging by their regular edicts on acceptable language and lapel labelling on gender and “inclusivity”, have forgotten all about service to the customer.”

In his very recent column in the Express he wrote: “One of these days I shall compile the Ingham scale of wokerati absurdity. Canada’s decision to rename the Brownies [young Girl Guides] “Embers” since they are “full of potential” – for setting things on fire is going to take some beating.”

Just this weekend there have been further stories about Brownies and Girl Guides in the UK.

Amendments have apparently been suggested to certain traditional songs because they are considered to contain references that have been “hurtful to people” and are not now considered to be “inclusive” enough.

Unfortunately, we will not now have the benefit of Sir Bernard’s ‘Ingham scale of wokerati absurdity’ but I, for one, will certainly be carrying on the battle against political correctness which continues its steady march in this country.

There has been the whole hoo-ha recently over the re-writing of Roald Dahl’s books.

Apparently the Big Friendly Giant in The BFG no longer wears a black cloak and characters cannot turn ‘white with fear’, as the words ‘black’ and ‘white’ are no longer used in the new versions.

The Cloud-Men in James and the Giant Peach are now known as ‘Cloud-People’.

The Oompa-Loompas who were once ‘small men’ are now ‘small people’ and Fantastic Mr Fox’s three sons have somehow become daughters.

This is only the latest in the Roald Dahl saga as apparently there were problems in 2020 when a Hollywood version of The Witches received complaints after the Grand Witch, played by Anne Hathaway, had a finger missing from each hand.

Apparently people thought that this was offensive to the ‘limb-difference’ community and apologies were issued.

James Bond novels have also recently been the subject of “sensitivity edits”.

If you go to the Globe’s website at the moment and try to buy a ticket for Shakespeare’s play A Midsummer Night’s Dream you get the following warning:

“The play contains language of violence, sexual references, misogyny and racism. Please contact the ticketing team….if you would like further details on the play’s content.”

After 400 and odd years this is what we are reduced to in Britain in 2023.

Then just when you think you have seen all the language guides, lists of acceptable phrases and the like taking things to extremes, someone takes it a stage further.

In California we now seem to have the “Evolving From Violent Language” guide being suggested.

The problem is not actually the guides themselves - because there are plenty of lunatics who could come up with this nonsense.

It seems to me that the problem really is other people thinking they are a good idea and either encouraging or, in some cases, forcing others to comply.

In this particular guide – trying to eradicate what they consider to be violent terms – it is suggested that the saying ‘I’ll bite the bullet’ becomes ‘I won’t avoid it any longer’ and “I’ll take a stab at it’ is amended to ‘I’ll take the first pass at it’.

However, the one that I can’t get out of my head is ‘that’ll kill two birds with one stone’ being replaced with ‘that’ll feed two birds with one scone’.

Do these people really have nothing better to do than come up with solutions looking for problems?

Given all this, we should all bear in mind the very wise recent words of the late great Sir Bernard Ingham. He said: “The world is deranged. We get evidence of it daily - and worryingly it does not surprise us.

“If the respectful majority is to prevail …. it will have to fight all the harder to drive back the excesses of the many – but still a minority – who are abusing our blessed freedom.”

“Unfortunately I cannot do much about this in my decrepitude except exhort the rational, sensible majority of our great nation to rise up and demand an end to it – and secure it. It can be done.”