IT is not exactly conservation, unless we call it the conservation of sensitivities, or correctness, if you like, but it seems we live in a sensitive world full of very sensitive people whose feelings we must constantly consider.
Now consider this. At a student fair at the University of East Anglia in England, a Tex-Mex restaurant was running a food stall and handing out sombreros to passing students.
Everyone was happy until the Student Union said that non-Mexicans wearing sombreros was ‘cultural appropriation’ and offensive to Mexicans and demanded that the hats be handed back to the food stall.
At Cambridge University, students were ordered not to have a party with the theme, Around the World in 80 Days, because, said the authorities, students might dress up in costumes belonging to other cultures and this would, again, encourage cultural appropriation.
They said this might cause offence.
Staying in Cambridge, professional punters (by which I mean people who pole punts, not people who play the horses) have been ordered to deliver a safety lecture to all their customers to ensure a safe trip on the River Cam.
Passengers are to be advised that they must not trail their hands in the water (maybe there are crocodiles in the River Cam) and that there must be no loud singing.
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Now, they may have a point here.
I have always wanted to go punting and the opportunity arose the last time we were in England to going punting on the Thames in Oxford.
Our party arrived with the de rigueur bottle of sparkling wine and smoked salmon sandwiches.
Our lady friend climbed in first and steadied the back end and then it was my turn. I stepped off the quay rather elegantly, I thought, and put one foot on the punt.
It wobbled, it lurched and it deposited me straight into the Thames (fortunately I was not carrying the champagne or the smoked salmon sandwiches).
I eventually surfaced and was hauled out of the river by an unsmiling punt attendant, for whom such a rescue operation was clearly quite routine.
In Yorkshire, inspectors from the Care Quality Commission have given a local care home a bad report because the staff addressed the residents as, ‘love’ or ‘darling’ or something similar.
The inspectors thought that the use of such terms of endearment was ‘demeaning’.
Teachers at a primary school in Buckinghamshire have been ordered to stop blowing a whistle at the end of playtime to attract the children’s attention, because the noise was too aggressive and startled the children.
Staying at school, Brighton College in East Sussex has scrapped the distinction between boys’ and girls’ uniforms to accommodate transgender children. All pupils may choose to wear either trousers, a blazer and a tie, or a skirt and jacket.
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It’s a funny old world. Some of my earliest memories are of dressing up (I must have offended nations around the world), the school whistle was part of the early experience of education, I really don’t mind being called ‘love’ and punting I’ve already discussed, so I must tip-toe off.
Source: The Week: the Best of the British and Foreign Media.
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