UK: Now council bans the use of 'political correctness' at work (The phrase, not the policies)

The Daily Mail (U.K.) ^ | November 1, 2006 | CHRIS BROOKE

[Stoat]

Now council bans the use of 'political correctness' at work

By CHRIS BROOKE Last updated at 10:41am on 1st November 2006

 

Cllr Robert Light: Kirklees council leader blamed his political opponents and said the booklet was no longer being used by council staff

A council has warned staff against using the phrase 'political correctness' at work because it might offend people.

A booklet outlining 'equality' policy to council workers claims using the term at work can be damaging and even linked it to the Ku Klux Klan.

See also...
Council worker paid £91,000 to fix the lights
 

The bizarre publication also orders staff not to use words like 'policeman', 'fireman' and 'chairman', suggesting they are classic examples of 'exclusionary language.'

While the word 'ethnic' is also outlawed for being not 'appropriately descriptive.'

The 44-page training book called 'Equality Essentials' has been used for staff training courses at Kirklees Council in West Yorkshire.

The publication outlines forms of damaging behaviour in the workplace and rates them on a five-level scale.

The authors claim that moving things around on someone else's desk is as serious as punching or kicking them.

And workers are instructed to come up with 10 things they can do every day to make colleagues feel better.

Tory MP for Shipley Phillip Davies, a patron of the Campaign Against Political Correctness, branded the pamphlet 'extreme and patronising.'

'How much is it costing to produce all this garbage?' he said. 'The policy is full of either the blindingly obvious or utterly ridiculous nonsense.'

A section of the 'PC booklet is devoted to denouncing the use of the words 'political correctness'.

It states:'Political correctness is often used to describe what some of us think are unnecessary changes which don't really bother anyone.

'The term political correctness was coined in 1988 by John O'Sullivan III, who was a member of the Ku Klux Klan. He was making an after dinner speech complaining about how Black Americans were being allowed to take the jobs traditionally reserved for the white majority because of a wave of political correctness.

'Since then the phrase political correctness has almost universally been used to decry changes which aim to prevent offensive behaviour.'

It goes on to say because this takes the form of 'blaming the victim, denying peoples experience or expressing the view of a popular majority,' using the phrase can represent a 'physical attack.'

The authority's new Tory leader Robert Light blamed his political opponents and said the booklet was no longer being used by council staff.

'We don't think it is relevant to use this booklet. We are trying to achieve the situation where the council has a more professional, modern approach. Diversity is still an issue for us but we will be taking a common sense approach rather than being part of the PC culture.

'Kirklees Council has had the title of most PC Council in Yorkshire and we are determined to change that view.'

Mr Light added:'References to the Ku Klux Klan and Nazi Germany are really extreme to use in a training guide even as a reference, it's very bizarre.

'I find it more unbelievable that they complain about the use of the word ethnic when it is the term that Government bodies, think-tanks and local leaders all use. It's very off the wall.'

Kirklees Council employs more than 18,000 people and has a budget of more than £470 million.

[TigersEye]

and the ACLU now says they are not socialists, they are conservatives.

So the commies want to be called conservatives now? That's fine. From now on I will refer to myself as "A Real American" in order to make the distinction.

[Stoat]

and the ACLU now says they are not socialists, they are conservatives.

So the commies want to be called conservatives now? That's fine. From now on I will refer to myself as "A Real American" in order to make the distinction.

Please don't do that.  The Left will define such an expression as "hate speech" and they will have you put in jail for a thousand years (and the IRS will audit you on each one of those thousand years)

This will take you away from your computer and we need you here at Free Republic    :-)

and the ACLU now says they are not socialists, they are conservatives.

So the commies want to be called conservatives now? That's fine. From now on I will refer to myself as "A Real American" in order to make the distinction.

Please don't do that.  The Left will define such an expression as "hate speech" and they will have you put in jail for a thousand years (and the IRS will audit you on each one of those thousand years)

This will take you away from your computer and we need you here at Free Republic    :-)

[Stoat]

Racial quotas = Affirmative action

Democrats = Socialists / Marxists / Stalinists / Maoists / and yes COMMUNISTS.

[Question_Assumptions]

Yes. The "bang" addresses and the old net organization (e.g., net.women, net.motss) was an interesting look back at things before the great reorganization and Eternal September.

[Question_Assumptions]

Thanks for the reference. As the old Usenet posts show, it was already and old worn term by the early 1980s and I used to have a reference going back to the 1960s, so I did know it went back pretty far. Part of what converted it to a term of derision was the overuse by leftist academics and part comes from the neo-cons, many of whom were leftists in their youths. At least that's the way I heard it.

[Stoat]

And workers are instructed to come up with 10 things they can do every day to make colleagues feel better.

I can think of ten ways my colleagues can make me feel better. Oddly enough, they all involve leaving me alone to do my job.

Your independent attitude is exclusionary, elitist, and sets you apart from the Others.  You must concern yourself less with the intricacies of your job and more with achieving a communal workplace environment where all workers feel that they are part of the team regardless of their ability, intelligence, or their understanding or implementation of personal hygiene. The Individual is Nothing....the Group is Everything. Come, be part of The Group.  The Group brings Harmony, and Harmony is good for the State.  The State loves you and wants to take care of you, but it cannot unless you are an enthusiastic member of the Group.

Be as One with Us.  Resistance is futile.

 

(snicker)

 

 

[TigersEye]

Hate speech? You bet it is. Put me in jail for a thousand years? Ha, I can do that standing on my head. IRS audits? I have a letter from the IRS ordering me not to waste their time filing returns. (I really do.) Take away my computer? That's dirty pool! I have a RIGHT to a computer. Those damn dirty apes!

[Dick Bachert]

Sorry, but since you DID, after all, mention “PC” in your post, you are simply the latest recipient of a newly discovered definition of the term, to wit:

Political Correctness:

”A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical liberal minority, and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end.”

By spreading this definition around, perhaps we can employ one of the more effective methods of deflating and defeating the fools who practice and promote it: RIDICULE.

Unless stopped – and soon – PC will DESTROY Western Civilization -- if it hasn’t already.

PASS IT ON!!