Banning Wet- T’s and Other PC Nonsense in Great Britain
By Don | May 13, 2008
The powers that be in Great Britain seem to have nothing better to do than to take the fun out of life and defy common sense based on a series of recent actions.
One that is sure to fire up the passions of pub-goers is the banning of wet t-shirt contests. While I am not a supporter of such contests the reasoning behind the banning has nothing to do with accusations of sexism or how the contests may be demeaning to women but because there is a newfound fear that contestants could catch a cold or the flu from being doused with cold water and would sue the pubs. One other reason cited for the ban is that some patrons may get so excited by the contests that they might spill their ale and cause someone to slip and fall and sue the pub. There is no evidence that any of this has actualy happened or would happened but just a fear that it could. At least now the pubs are more politically correct.
Other recent actions of where political correctness has overtaken British culture include a 2500 year-old split log bridge in Devon was closed because it was feared that someone could fall one meter (3.28 feet) into a creek. This despite the fact that the logs on the bridge were replaced 20 years ago and that there have never been any reported accidents. In Hampshire officials removed a swing under an oak tree that children have played on since 1897 without incident. Once again fear of being sued rules the day.
Had enough? How about this one? In some schools brainstorm has been replaced by thoughtshower due to a concern that the former may be offensive to epilepsy sufferers.
Stay tuned for more examples of political correctness run amok in the U.K.
1 Comment | Post a Comment
May 14 at 11:52 am | #1 | Link
This sort of inane “bureaucracy run wild” is one of the reasons we left the UK in 2002 and one of the primary reasons I won’t let our four and seven year old children grow up there. We’re returning to Europe, but will move to France instead this time, where the government may be overly ambitious (read socialist) but Liberty is still a strong word. Individual freedom and responsibility have lost out to the statists in the UK and should this election turn the administration Democrat, statism will prevail in the US, too. Even if McCain wins, there will still be a statist turn since he appears to be a Hoover mercantilist clone.
I guess it is true that when you lull the population into a stupor with an easier economic life, they let their principles slip while they are having what they are told is “fun”.