We have definitely gone mad

[DTCwordfan]

"Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall
Humpty Dumpty had a bungee jump fall
All the King's horses and the King's men
made Humpty smile again"

The PC version of that old kids fav....... and yes,many others have been bastardised such as "What shall we do with the Drunken Sailor" - now we can't have references to alcohol can we - and the line "Put him in the brig until he is sober" has become "Do a little jig and make him smile."

We have truly lost it......

To the point that the Heritage Lottery Fund is putting up £585,400 to fund "The Full English" project with the English Folk Dance and Song Society to restore these classics - as not only is our English lit heritage being eroded by the PCites but many kids have a better knowledge of Euroepan or African songs, and those are being taught in schools.

On one hand, it's unbelievable, on the other we need to spend half a mill to preserve our culture, half a mill that could have gone elsewhere.

Source: Sunday Telegraph today

Open to your comments on this.....over to you!

[Kromovaracun]

Political Correctness is a myth. There is no 'PC Brigade' - they are some sort of weird right-wing bogeyman for events which are overwhelmingly made up or severely distorted (the famous 'Winterval' nonsense being the standard example). It's a conspiracy theory sharing about an equal ranking with UFOs or arctic nazis or whatever.

As SP has demonstrated, the stuff about 'Baa Baa Black Sheep' is totally fabricated, and the alleged 'sanitization' of classic folk songs is being counteracted by the Heritage Lottery Fund. Which incidentally appears to be a project more inclined toward pushing for the singing of these songs generally rather than exclusively against their 'sanitization'.

There is no such thing as PC.

[Tilly2]

mushroom25, I have a copy of the1959 Opie's book. It's one of my treasures.

[EDDIE51]

I can't understand the current fascination in kids TV for Pirate's .
Lets face it Pirates were seagoing robbers and thiefs they murdered anyone who stood in there way . The marine equivalent of highway men.
When we have the grandkids staying over and so have children's TV on every other program is glorifying pirates.

[emmie]

not exactly true K
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winterval

[emmie]

our council is the same i am afraid, though i don't care for the commercialisation of Christmas, i wish they would leave well alone.

[rowanwitch]

Birmingham Redsident...Most of the council stuff at the time referred to the Winter festivals (hannukah and yule included ) but the lights included a merry christmas sign and Christmas was the focus although as for town centres everywhere there was little emphasis on the christian celebration rather than the general eat drink and be merry brigade...

[emmie]

you wouldn't know it was Christmas around here, no decorations, no rejoicing, no celebrations at all. Same for St Georges Day, but they can always find the money, time for Diwali, Eid, etc.

[AB Editor]

We have gone mad if so many believe the assertions of the original post!

Also, as an aside, I had until very recently seen DTC's avatar as a deranged Emu - when in fact it is a lambchop.

[Kromovaracun]

"not exactly true K "

I was referring to the 'Christmas is banned'/'you can't say Christmas' nonsense that emerged from it.

[andy1512]

You know I as a Scot feel sorry for the English, your identity and your history is being slowly eroded in favour of the bleeding heart PC brigade who are terrified of offending anything or anyone.
England has been over-run by foreigners keen to keep their ethnic identity and culture whilst doing their best to eradicate everything English.
Children at school not learning the true verse of nursery rhymes are being denied their English heritage. BA BA Black Sheep for example, first written in 1307 in respect to King Edward the 2nd. He encouraged English wool merchants to produce the finest wool in Europe. It was exported all over the known world. Black wool was expensive due to its popularity with nobility for use as robes and Abbots habits as a sign of authority. Humpty Dumpty again English history, it refers to a canon used in the siege of Colchester in 1648.
The Royalist had the canon defending the walls, the wall beneath it took a direct hit from Parliament forces artillery and the canon toppled to the ground.
It was this that made the Royalists surrender.
So the more the PC lot change words and phrases so as not to offend, the more the loss your heritage for ever.

[Kromovaracun]

Much as I disagree, I do like how everyone here is championing the importance of culture. It's very important. But whenever the topic of funding research into the humanities comes up, the austerity line kicks in (and even did so before the recession). 'It's a waste of money', 'non-jobs' etc. Is this a double standard? I think so. Not sure how everyone else feels.

[rowanwitch]

Ed I thought I was the only one seeing that

[jno]

Eddie, piracy was something of a socialist enterprise, with (in theory) everyone getting an equal share of the booty whatever their job and regardless of whether they had wooden legs. Jolly good role models for kids, I should say.

[FredPuli43]

Ah, yes, the Opie book; The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes; shows that we might be grateful that our children are not singing the original words of many of our cherished nursery rhymes. Some are distinctly adult or vulgar. They were cleaned up by subsequent editors, largely in Victorian times. Different times, different sensitivities !