On BBC1 just now... in between the ending of Traffic Cops and the 10 o'clock news, the duty presenter said:
"Now... on BBC2... a couple of reasons to join Graham Norton... Katie Price!"
Funny maybe... I do have a sense of humour... and I don't mind a bit of... well ok, maybe even a lot of political incorrectness... I do enough of it myself... but.... come on... do we want it from presenters on the BBC? Where's all the decorum gone at 'Auntie Beeb'? Oh... which reminds me... wasn't it the BBC who censored Carol Thatcher for remarking about 'golliwogs'!!
In any case... I'm afraid... Jordan just doesn't do it for me. I like my 'couple of things' to come with another thing... a brain up top! Oh... and as I understand it... they're false anyway aren't they? What do I know about such things!
I've pinched that headline and well known quotation from the byline a friend of mine uses on forum posts... as I think it's particularly apt with this story today! (Thanks Joe R )
A cartoon about Professor Stephen Hawking which appeared in yesterday's regional newspaper, the Metro, has once again prompted the 'politically correct brigade' to come out in force this morning!
As I'm sure you are aware, Professor Hawking has motor neurone disease. He uses a wheelchair and speaks using a voice synthesiser. On Monday, Professor Hawking was admitted to Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge with chest problems.
The cartoon, in the Metro yesterday shows two people discussing Professor Hawking. The caption says:
"I wonder if they've tried switching him off and switching him on again".
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the cartoon has caused offence in some quarters. The Motor Neurone Disease Association say the cartoon is "distasteful and it's appalling that the cartoon seems to mock disability".
But did you chuckle when you read the joke?
This morning on Nicky Campbell's phone-in on BBC Radio Five Live's Breakfast programme callers were asked about Britain's attitudes to disability - "are we prejudiced"?
Many callers held the view that Britain is prejudiced against disability and I would not disagree.
But, in my opinion, this cartoon has nothing to do with prejudice... or disability!! It's just a joke... and I would hazard a guess that Professor Hawking would be the first one to laugh at it!
Professor Hawking is held in great affection, not just in Britain but across the world. He is greatly admired for much more than just for his huge revealing contributions in the fields of cosmology and quantum gravity, or for writing his bestseller A Brief History of Time.
Professor Hawking has always reached our hearts through his indomitable spirit... his humanity... AND his ability at self-deprecation about his condition!
Frankly, those people taking offence about a silly and quite funny cartoon... should really chill out... and take a leaf out of Professor Hawking's own book... and get themselves a sense of humour in the same way as Professor Hawking has always shown.... with his ability at self-deprecation and great sense of humour!
Professor Hawking latest condition
Readers I am sure will be pleased to hear, as I was, that the latest news on Professor Hawking is that he is "comfortable" but still in hospital.
Cambridge University, his employers for the last 30 years, said Professor Hawking has undergone some tests on Monday at Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge and that the 67-year-old was now "comfortable".
I am sure everyone will join me in wishing Professor Hawking well... and a quick recovery... back to his normal self. I hope someone keeps a clipping of that cartoon for him... as he's bound to be amused!
In my Inbox today... you might have heard this one before as it's been going around for at least a couple of years... but it's worth retelling I think... though it's definitely not for the 'politically correct' brigade!
This is the one about this Councillor bloke from Oz... one thing about Aussies is that their hearts and humour are always (well nearly always) in the right place!
Apparently, T.B. Bechtel, who is a City Councillor from Newcastle, (that's the one in New South Wales, Australia), was asked on a local live radio talk show, just what he thought about the allegations of torture of suspected terrorists.
His reply prompted his ejection from the studio but... to thunderous applause from the audience!!
Here's his reply:
"If hooking up one raghead terrorist prisoner's testicles to a car battery to get the truth out of the lying little camelshagger will save just one Australian life, then I have only three things to say;
Red is positive... black is negative... oh and make sure his nuts are wet!!"
Now... I will add... just in case anyone wonders... I am NO racist... nor do I have anything against golliwogs (or camelshaggers for that matter... whatever they are) but I do have a sense of humour and like a good joke. Oh... and I also do not like people who try to impose their beliefs or views on others... by trying to kill or mame us!
Some of you may wonder why I call my Blog 'A Gibo's Tale'. This will probably be obvious to any Gibraltarian. The answer is... because I AM Gibraltarian... and because we Gibraltarians are often called 'Gibos' or is it Gibbos? I'll stick to 'Gibo'... saves on typing!
Many Gibraltarians find this term offensive. I can't remember if I ever did, but I definitely do not now... not now that I'm all grown up anyhow.
I'm sure we can all remember, from the playgrounds of our youth, often hearing the old phrase "Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me."
I've been giving this phrase some thought recently. It came to mind in connection with a number of controversies that have rumpused across our TVs, Radio phone in programes and newspapers here in the UK over the last few months.... in various guises.
Earlier this month, we had the row over the BBC's sacking of Carol Thatcher from The One Show for allegedly referring to a tennis player off-air as a "golliwog"!
Chatting as she sat in the BBC green room after recording an episode of the evening television magazine program, Ms. Thatcher, it later emerged, said something to the effect that the French tennis player Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who has a white French mother and a black Congolese father, reminded her of a golliwog. Several people there complained and word got out to BBC officials, who said the remark was “highly offensive.”
The BBC fired Ms. Thatcher from her slot as a regular contributor to the program after, it said, she dismissed her comment as a “light remark” and failed to make an appropriate apology.
As a result, the BBC was deluged by thousands of angry complaints accusing it of overreacting. Many made the argument that there is nothing so horribly wrong with “golliwog,” anyway.... and I agree... it's just a toy for christ sakes!
“She was making a friendly joke, rather as someone of the same generation might say, ‘Ooh, he looks just like Rupert Bear,’ ” the columnist Charles Moore wrote in The Daily Telegraph. Alluding to a postwar group of Conservatives who responded to a description of the party as “vermin” by forming the Vermin Club, Mr. Moore suggested that Ms. Thatcher “start a Golliwog Club.” What a great idea... I wonder how long it will be before we are invited to 'become a fan' of this group on Facebook!
The video, made by Harry himself, showed him blithely calling a fellow Army officer his “little Paki friend.” Since Harry had once demonstrated a certain insensitivity to nuance by appearing at a costume party in a Nazi outfit, the incident was perhaps not so surprising.
Harry apologized; the army apologized; everyone fell all over themselves to denounce the use of “Paki.” Even his friends said that Harry had used poor judgment and bad taste.
Then, again, came the backlash against the backlash.
In The Daily Telegraph, the columnist Simon Heffer said that, sure, the incident was unfortunate but that “the barely concealed, self-righteous glee with which solemn, boot-faced toadies of the politically correct establishment queued up to condemn the Prince” was nearly as bad.
By way of defending Prince Harry, an Indian friend of the family named Kolin Dhillun, who plays polo with Prince Charles, revealed that Charles calls him “Sooty,” and that he doesn’t mind at all.
Perhaps it is a generational phenomenon, or an upper-class one, or a bit of both... but for me,having been termed a 'Gibo' forever... I have to say I find all this pretty much as 'stuff and nonsense'!
“What is disappointing is that lately all this vitriol and condescension seems to be all generated from the upper echelons of society, people who you would imagine would view themselves as being cosmopolitan and having a global outlook on the world,” said Jonathan Thomas, the secretary of 100 Black Men of London, a group that mentors young people.
He has a point. Prince Philip, the queen’s husband (and Harry’s grandfather) and the epitome of the old-school upper classes, has a famous history of insulting groups of all kinds around the world, from Scotland to Australia.
“Deaf? If you are near there, no wonder you are deaf,” he barked at a group of young deaf people in Wales, referring to a loud band playing nearby. In 1986 he warned British students in Beijing that “if you stay here much longer, you’ll all be slitty-eyed.” Ha ha... Bless him... and what's wrong with that??!
Meanwhile, the Eton- and Oxford-educated Conservative politician Boris Johnson once referred to “flag-waving piccaninnies” in a column for The Daily Telegraph. In 2006, he managed to offend an entire country when he wrote about “Papua New Guinea-style orgies of cannibalism and chief-killing.”
Mr. Johnson then promised to “add Papua New Guinea to my global itinerary of apology.” Last year, he was elected mayor of London.
Now I ask you... has the world (or Britain to be more precise) gone mad? Have our sensibilities... if not our sensitivities... been finally taken over by the twaddles of the politically correct brigade?
Unfortunately, too many societal groups seem intent today upon claiming that far too many words... always hurt!! Whoever believes this gets to feel hurt a lot and... to my mind, is always at the whim of some person out there intent on causing offence.
It has only been in recent years that significant questioning of a hurt response to such verbal slings and arrows has developed. In the gay/lesbian movement there was, at one time, much discussion over the words "fag" and "queer" with many of the younger generation of gays and lesbians claiming those labels publicly for themselves! In the same way, young blacks sometimes calling each other "nigger" has also been a parallel development. By so doing, these younger men and women, in my opinion, have increased their self-esteem, as well as making it impossible for homophobic/racist bashers to bother them with those words.
This, I think is a far healthier response and one which in pyschology academia, is considered as an example of empowerment. Ergo... A Gibo's Tale!
A few happier activists are even coming to a belief that there is no such thing as adult verbal harassment. They are viewing claims of verbal victimization very differently. Their view is that claimants of verbal harassment have often thrown away possibilities for verbal repartee and capabilities for moving away.
Most people these days think that nasty names "naturally" hurt folks. I think this sort of thinking is causing huge amounts of unhappiness and is at the root of all these controversies we have recently experienced.. and which we often term as the 'PC brigade' gone mad!
The process of name-calling is typically based upon feeling NOT OK, and name-callers are trying to make themselves feel more powerful by using the process. In the same way, those offended by name calling, are also seemingly there... just waiting to be offended or insulted... possibly because they themselves have a weakness, maybe even a chip on their shoulder. Here's the general psychological concept:
"If I call you a name and get you upset, then I temporarily feel more powerful because I had a powerful effect upon you. My self-esteem rises at your expense. I project my unhappiness on to you and you take it on if you allow yourself to be upset. If you do not get upset at my attempt, then I cannot dump my original unhappiness on you. Then I am left not only with my failure to successfully dump it on you but also with my original unhappiness to boot."
That's straight out of nursery school... or maybe the playground isn't it? But... it seems that's how it is!
For my money, if you're successful at being unbothered by their words, then the attempting offender winds up more unhappy and he'll probably soon stop bothering to use those words. Most of us learnt this at school, while growing up with our peers. Name-callers will usually feel worse if you do not react to their name-calling and very quickly will stop such behavior. If on the other hand you get visibly... or in any other way, upset... they'll just carry on.
It's about time, many in our wonderful culturally mixed Great Britain... learnt this simple bit of psychology... and stopped being so damn sensitive about far too much!
Sheeesh! Is nothing sacred anymore? 
Funny maybe... I do have a sense of humour... and I don't mind a bit of... well ok, maybe even a lot of political incorrectness... I do enough of it myself... but.... come on... do we want it from presenters on the BBC? Where's all the decorum gone at 'Auntie Beeb'? Oh... which reminds me... wasn't it the BBC who censored Carol Thatcher for remarking about 'golliwogs'!! 
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