Saving The Nation

‘LAST week the Sun brought us news of how Snow White’s seven dwarfs had fallen victim to the marauding “PC brigade” and become “gnomes”. It was Snow White and the Vertically Challenged.

This week, it’s the Express’s turn to spot this nefarious brigade and announce on its front page: “HOGWASH. Now the PC brigade bans piggy banks is case they upset Muslims.”

The paper says that all promotional material bearing the figure of a money-hungry pig has been banned from the Halifax and NatWest banks in the East Lancashire region.

To the paper’s mind this is crazy. How dare these banks try not to offend their customers, however heavy-handed and ludicrous their move.

And it notes that this development has been “condemned” by nothing less than a leading Church of England clergyman.

Pray silence for the Dean of Blackburn, the Very Reverend Christopher Armstrong, who, as we’d expect from a man well used to public speaking, knows just what to say in the circumstances: “This is petty and political correctness gone mad.”

Is it anything other than that? Is it ever?

“The next thing we will be banning Christmas trees and cribs and the logical result of that process is bland uniformity.” Life without piggy banks, indoor pine trees and cribs will be horribly dull.

Andre Rosindell, the Tory MP for Romford, Essex, is also less than impressed. “It is quite absurd,” says he. “…I cannot believe the majority of Muslims genuinely object to seeing a picture of a piggy bank on a wall or in a leaflet. This is the sort of political correctness that makes normal-thinking people very angry. It’s barmy.”

After hearing from them, the Express sets about finding a Muslim to illicit a response from. And with Omar Bakri out of the country and Osama bin Laden missing or dead, it makes do with Salim Mulla, secretary for the Lancashire Council of Mosques.

“This is a sensitive issue,” says Salim, noting the Express’s over-sensitive response. “And I think the banks are simply being courteous to their customers.”

And… Surely Salim can do better than that. He’s not trying. Where’s the polemic? Where’s the outrage? Where’s the rant about Jews running all the banks and how the pig is part of a universal conspiracy to make money unclean and so unfit for poor Muslims to touch.

Oh, how we need barking Bakri back in this country. Any more of this and we’ll start thinking Muslims are just like the rest of us. Even if they do keep their money in wallets and purses…’

Posted: 24th, October 2005 | In: Tabloids Comment | TrackBack | Permalink