Last week there was a hullabaloo about a postmaster telling customers who could not speak English either to get an interpreter or to leave the post office. He claimed they took too long in the queue whilst he tried to decipher what they were saying. The fact that he was of Sri Lankan background only helped to fuel the spontaneous fury, mainly from non-integrated Muslims. Deva Kumarasiri had a very valid point. He said, "People should learn the language. It doesn't have to be perfect, mine isn't perfect. To integrate into society you have to learn English. You don't have to change your cultural values, but at least learn the language." Now who, apart from nauseating Taliban supporters and New Labour culturalists, could gainsay that!The old saying of "When in Rome do as the Romans" is lost on a lot of people. All that goes by the board, especially for the clipboard-hugging, box-ticking PC lot at the BBC.
Now we have a situation where Sir David Jason is brought up short, by the BBC's great arbiters of proper humour, for telling a "racist" joke. This is the offending joke -
"What do you call a Pakistani cloakroom attendant?" Answer - "Me hat, me coat."
Now if you put any other nationality in there it may be acceptable. Try Russian with a different tag line. David Jason hardly knew what hit him. He had been "horrified" when hearing he had "given offence". I'm more horrified at the comedic cleansing going on at the BBC. The corporation is so rectally challenged it hardly knows what to do. An unnamed spokeswoman prissilly says - "The comments made by David Jason were unacceptable and Christian O'Connell (the radio presenter) distanced himself from them live on air. We consider the views of our listeners to be very important and have received no complaints about these comments. We will continue to monitor any complaints and Christian O'Connell will issue an on-air apology in tomorrow's breakfast show."
What a garbled statement! Monitoring non-existent complaints. Get a life, woman!
No comments:
Post a Comment