Here we go again. After the NHS Deciding to bring us “breastfeeding,” “pregnant individuals,” and a variety of other nonsensical euphemisms designed to blot out biological women, the Local Government Association has decided to take action as well.
Municipalities across Britain have been given a catalog of banned words and their approved replacements.
For example, going out ‘mom and dad’, and gender neutral ‘birth parent’. Staff are also told not to say ‘Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen’ as it could offend those who might identify as neither.
The 18-page Inclusive Language Guide, distributed to 359 English and Welsh municipalities, focuses on ’embedding equality, justice, diversity and inclusion’. But after years of insisting that we refer to people of black and other ethnic backgrounds as BAME, that has now disappeared from the banned list, along with the word “minorities” itself.
You can’t even say ‘multicultural’ anymore. The preferred term seems to be ‘global majority communities’.
What is Welsh for you couldn’t come up with?
Mark Lloyd, the chief executive of the LGA, explains that the new rules are essential because “experiences of trauma, racial trauma and exclusion are already being experienced at a disproportionate rate by black, LGBTQ+ and neurodivergent people in the workplace.”
Municipalities across Britain have been given a catalog of banned words and their approved replacements. For example, going out ‘Mommy and Papa’, in comes gender neutral ‘birth parent’ writes Richard Littlejohn (stock image)
Neurodivergent? That’s a new one for me. I had to look it up. It describes ‘people whose brain differences affect how theirs work. That means they have different strengths and challenges than people with brains that don’t have those differences, including medical disorders, learning disabilities, and other conditions.” Yet we have been told for years not to refer to people with disabilities but to encourage them to describe them as ‘otherwise disabled’.
But now that we’ve grown accustomed to that term, “otherwise skilled” is also blacklisted under the latest directive. (Can you still say “blacklist”?) In the local government’s Looking Glass World — where, like Humpty Dumpty, words mean what they want them to mean — you can’t even call homeless people “homeless.”
What should we say: people with a housing shortage? Housed differently? I’ve read the Inclusive Language Guide, so you don’t have to. And to be fair, most of it is written in a foreign language – a cross between Professor Stanley Unwin and Bill and Ben The Flower Pot Men, when they were graduates of the University of Woke.
Illegal immigrant is a non-starter, of course long ago translated as asylum seeker. This also applies to ‘economic migrants’. The guide suggests ‘non-UK resident’ as an alternative. Oh, and by the way, you can’t describe anyone as “foreign” either. Or even ‘second generation’. I thought I’d mention it. Can’t be careful enough.
Other offensive words to avoid are “queer” and “colored” — except in the case of those individuals who define as “queer” or call themselves “colored.”
The 18-page Inclusive Language Guide, distributed to 359 English and Welsh municipalities, focuses on ’embedding equality, justice, diversity and inclusion’. But after years of insisting that we refer to people of black and other ethnic backgrounds as BAME, that has now disappeared from the banned list, along with the word ‘minorities’ itself (stock image)
Confused? You should be. So while it’s perfectly acceptable for self-defining “queers” to describe themselves as such, if you or I did, we can expect a morning attack from Scotland Yard’s “hate crimes” squad.
The entire public sector is captivated by this ever-changing newspeak. It’s hard to keep up.
For example, in the NHS you can’t say ‘disabled’ these days. The correct expression is: ‘A person with protected characteristics under the Equality Act of 2010’. Yes really. And even the word ‘disease’ is banned because – and I quote from the NHS website – it ‘suggests that the person can get better’. uh? What is that supposed to mean?
Still, with six million on the waiting list and the odds of seeing a GP on par with winning the lottery, it’s entirely possible that many of those who need urgent treatment won’t really get better. .
Perhaps the NHS should adopt a new slogan: Abandon all hopes that come in here.
Look, it’s easy to mock. But someone has to do it. Twisting language is the left’s way of exercising its false moral superiority and controlling national discourse. This has been going on for decades but has escalated alarmingly in recent years as we have been told not only how to talk, but how to think.
It started as simple courtesy. We don’t talk about spasms anymore and don’t use the N-word anymore. We also wouldn’t want to go back to the bad old days when we did.
Illegal immigrant is a non-starter, of course long ago translated as asylum seeker. So is ‘economic migrant’ (file image)
It’s worth noting, though, that when kids who struggled in school were described as “learning disabilities,” LD quickly became a playground spot. And when dwarves became “Persons of Restricted Growth,” it wasn’t long before they were mocked as “Porgs” in some vicious circles.
Something that starts with the best motives can have unexpected and unfortunate consequences. What started as a way to protect vulnerable minorities has turned into a grotesque crusade, again the majority – especially women, who have been reduced to mere “menstruating people” to appease the small minority of intolerant, sometimes violent, trans-fanatics.
The wokerati are not satisfied with rewriting language, they are now also rewriting history and human biology.
You can’t even joke about this madness anymore. Not that it ever stopped me. When it all started, some 30 years ago, columnists like me had a field day mocking the latest left-wing insanity.
That’s when the revisionists started chasing everything they deemed politically incorrect, even censoring and censoring everything from beloved children’s stories to pantos.
I remember that under pressure from human rights activists, a theater group in Derbyshire had to change the name of a production of The Hunchback Of Notre Dame to The Bell-Ringer Of Notre Dame.
Shortly afterwards, late in this parish, the great Keith Waterhouse wrote a column wondering what the next step would be. He came up with: Noddy And Socially Challenged Ears.
These days, I’m not even sure if Noddy would make it.
Watch your language.
Councilors in Great Yarmouth have decided not to plant an apple, pear or plum avenue on the quayside as it could pose a safety hazard.
Officials had warned that the fruit could fall onto the sidewalk, causing passers-by to step on it and slip. They also feared that “fruit could be used as rockets” thrown at vacationers by local hooligans. I remember Mods and Quadrophenia-style rockers clashing on the Yarmouth seafront in the 1960s, but they were throwing rocks, bottles, and deck chairs at each other, not Granny Smith’s and Conference pears.
This is as foolish as the Lib Dem councilor who wanted to cut down Torquay’s famous palm trees, in case a falling leaf caught sight of a child. “It’s a bit like keeping tigers,” he said. “Nice to see, but you don’t want them wandering the streets.” Nurse!
What is it about elf’n’safety sending some people bananas?
A marine engineer has been acquitted by a court martial of sexually abusing a male colleague, because he is ‘demisexual’.
So what is that – someone who has sex with Demi Moore?
A marine engineer has been acquitted by a court martial of sexually abusing a male colleague, because he is ‘demisexual’. So what is that – someone who has sex with Demi Moore?
Save us from Lord Nonce Finder General
Nonce Finder General Tom Watson has been nominated for peerage again. The application was swept under the radar by Labor as the world watched the Tories implode.
Presumably Keir Starmer approved it. Yet the odious Watson has already been rightly rejected by the Lords Appointments Commission after being appointed by Jeremy Corbyn in 2021.
He abused parliamentary privilege and his position as deputy Labor leader to falsely accuse prominent Tories of murder and child abuse. Where the hell does Watson get his sense of entitlement from? And if Starmer becomes prime minister, can we expect the NFG’s rehabilitation to include a government job?
Watson must not come within a mile of the Lords. In a just world, he would share a cell with his partner-in-crime, Beech.
Labor has promised to sabotage the determination of new Home Sec Sue Ellen Braverman to push through the Rwandan migrant plan. Does Keir Starmer know about this? After all, the team he claims to support, Arsenal, is sponsored by Visit Rwanda. And if Rwanda is safe enough for Gooners to go on vacation, what’s wrong with sending migrants there?