Very smart piece in the Guardian today, which you can link to here.
The current moral panic about "politically correct" liberals trying to ban Christmas is a story conjured out of nothing.
Oliver Burkeman says: "...a few awkward facts. Luton does not have a festival called Luminos. It does not use any alternative name for Christmas. When it did, once, five years ago, hold something called Luminos one weekend in late November, the event didn't even replace the council's own Christmas celebrations, let alone forbid anyone else from doing anything. Similarly, Christmas is not called Winterval in Birmingham. The Royal Edinburgh Hospital for Sick Children never banned a Christmas CD for mentioning Jesus. And Chester council's "un-Christian" Christmas card says - as cards have done for decades - "Season's Greetings"."
The survey by Peninsula, a business advisory company of this parish, suggesting that 74% of British employers have banned Christmas decorations for fear of offending non-Christians, just looked wrong to me. I don't know anyone at all who has done this.
Happy Christmas.
2 comments:
The Guardian piece is spot on. It's always something I wonder - where do the Daily Mail et al conjour up these stories from. The way they, the News of the Screws and others whip up the integration debate at every opportunity is truly shameful. They wheel out highly selective and suspect quotes when it suits their agenda. And, having done some reporting shifts on a tabloid newspaper I can assure you there is no shame about inventing quotes to suit the story. At best it's a disgrace and at worst downright inflammatory.
Agreed - kindof - it's more that there is a level of Political Correctness gone mad, but it's not as bad as made out to be in most instances.
I worry about how the journalists check their sources, I imagine a meeting that goes something like:
Journo: 'Tell me your story.'
"Eyewitness" 'There was this guy with a duck and he was totally told that carrying a duck was a health and safety issue'
Journo: 'Can you prove the truth of your story?'
"Eyewitness" 'I used to be in the Boy Scouts'
Journo: 'Fair enough. This should
sell a few more papers.'
Leaves.
"Eyewitness" 'Hmmm, maybe it was a hamster...'
I don't see as many religion themed cards in the shops anymore though.
It depends on what/who you worship though...
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