How David Cameron fell victim to the ‘sensitivity police’


By
Melanie Phillips

Last updated at 9:55 AM on 9th January 2012

Oh dear. The latest victim of Britain’s new ‘sensitivity inquisition’ is no less than someone whose antennae are most exquisitely attuned to the niceties of political correctness — the Prime Minister himself. 

David Cameron saw his attempt to set the political agenda by calling for a ‘fairer’ Britain completely overshadowed by a row over his throwaway jibe at Ed Balls.

Mr Cameron likened the shadow chancellor’s abusive gestures during Prime Minister’s Questions to Tourette’s syndrome, whose sufferers are characterised by uncontrollable tics and profane language.

This calls to mind the fuss over George Osborne’s throwaway joke more than five years ago that suggested that Gordon Brown had autism. 

Both remarks displayed that effortless public school cruelty that has caused Mr Cameron to be compared with Flashman, the bully in Tom Brown’s Schooldays. 

The PM is under fire for likening Ed Ball's gestures to those exhibited by sufferers of Tourette's syndrome

The PM is under fire for likening Ed Ball’s gestures to those exhibited by sufferers of Tourette’s syndrome

Nevertheless, the outraged reaction in each case was surely more than a touch over the top. After all, the targets of these insults were clearly Ed Balls and Gordon Brown — and no one else. Yet it was sufferers from Tourette’s or autism who were held, instead, to have been grievously traduced. 

This row reminds me of the time I once used the term ‘schizophrenic’ in the way it is often colloquially used to denote someone who veers between one opinion and another — only to be bawled out by the father of a child suffering from schizophrenia.

Hypocrisy

The popular association of this illness with being ‘in two minds’ was a shocking prejudice, he stormed, as it actually involved a wholesale breakdown of brain function.

Well, I was sorry to have spoken so loosely and trodden on such a corn — but did my colloquialism really merit quite such an affronted response?

The truth is that we are living today in a very strange culture, marked by a bewildering combination of hyper-sensitivity, gross hypocrisy and rank absurdity.

To put it another way, while many now feel forced to censor what they say for fear of being pilloried for one thought-crime or another, others manage to get away with vile remarks — while still others are attacked for the use of words whose meaning has been wrenched out of context.

Political correctness gone mad: Cameron's comments were clearly only meant for Ed Balls and Gordon Brown

Political correctness gone mad: Cameron’s comments were clearly only meant for Ed Balls and Gordon Brown

For example, Labour MP Diane Abbott was accused of racism last week for having tweeted that ‘white people love playing “divide and rule”.’ 

But this was absurd. White people do love dividing and ruling — especially the British, who during the Empire thought they had elevated this to an art form.

Similarly, the loud-mouthed TV presenter Jeremy Clarkson detonated yet another race row at the weekend after comparing the sight of Olympic synchronised swimmers with the ‘upside-down hats’ of the 21 Chinese cockle-pickers who were killed in rising tides in Morecambe Bay, Lancashire, in 2004.

He was promptly attacked by anti-racism groups who said he had ‘no right to offend communities in this country who live and work here and provide more to Britain than he does’.

His remark, it has to be said, was as gratuitously tasteless as it was bizarre. But racist? His fatuous comparison surely caused offence not on account of the ethnicity of those Chinese cockle-picklers but because it insulted their memory as the fatal victims of a horrible tragedy.

Meanwhile, the world of football has been engulfed by one racism furore after another. Last month, the England football captain John Terry was charged with racially abusing QPR player Anton Ferdinand by allegedly calling him a ‘****ing black ****’.

Last week, the Liverpool striker Luis Suarez was banned by the FA for eight matches after repeatedly calling a Senegalese-born Manchester United player a ‘negro’. And during the Liverpool/Oldham FA Cup tie at Anfield last Friday evening, an oaf in the crowd called player Tom Adeyemi a ‘******g black b******’.

Some may wonder whether abusing someone as a ‘****ing black b******’ is really worse than someone being abused as a ‘****ing b*******’.

Well, personally, as a Jew, I find it rather worse to be abused as a ‘Jewish bigot’ rather than a mere ‘bigot’ (though, distressingly, I am vilified as both fairly regularly). This is because being abused as a Jew or a black person is more devastating because the abuse relates to a person’s unalterable identity. 

On the other hand, all such abuse crucially depends on the context in which these things are said. Yet our culture of hyper-sensitivity now seems to mean that virtually any disobliging comment uttered by a white person about black people, or vice versa, is automatically deemed to be racist.

Balance

It’s hard to decide whether this is evidence of mass hysteria or mass imbecility. Of course, it is right that true prejudice — as demonstrated by the terrible murder of Stephen Lawrence — should be deemed wholly unacceptable. But it is also  necessary to display a sense of proportion and balance.

Once upon a time, that line was marked by the law against incitement to racial hatred. Singling out a person or a group for such incitement of hatred on account of their unavoidable racial identity was not just considered unacceptable in itself.

The concern was that it created a climate that encouraged acts of racial violence. Yet such was the parallel concern not to infringe freedom of expression that very few prosecutions were brought under this law.

Diane Abbot caused a scandal when she tweeted that 'white people love playing 'divide and rule''

Diane Abbot caused a scandal when she tweeted that ‘white people love playing ‘divide and rule”

Now, however, freedom of expression is forgotten. Prejudice has become the cardinal sin because protecting someone’s feelings now trumps all.

As a result, the feelings of hurt suffered by self-designated ‘victim’ groups are interpreted as a criminal offence. The problem with this approach is that it leads straight from the decent desire to eradicate true prejudice to the politically correct tyranny of stamping out any view with which those in authority  may disagree. Moreover, the culture of political correctness dictates that only groups who are deemed powerless can be considered victims of prejudice.

Thus people who make remarks which offend Muslims or gay people, for example, may find the police investigating them for ‘Islamophobia’ or ‘homophobia’. Yet, on the other hand, Christians find themselves being insulted all the time with no redress.

In the interests of driving out prejudice, we are now in a position where language has been progressively censored. So, for example, the word ‘retarded’ was changed to ‘mentally handicapped’, which, in turn, also came to be considered insulting and so was replaced by ‘differently abled’. Similarly, ‘ethnic minority’ was bafflingly replaced by the new PC-speak term ‘minority ethnic’.

Cruelty

Insulting: Jeremy Clarkson's many outlandish comments have done little harm to his career

Insulting: Jeremy Clarkson’s many outlandish comments have done little harm to his career

In other words, we have progressed seamlessly from insult to euphemism, with truth and a sense of proportion being mislaid somewhere along the way.

Meanwhile, true offensiveness, cruelty and humiliation are considered acceptable on TV reality shows such as Big Brother or I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!

Jeremy Clarkson, despite all the uproar he creates, is still handsomely rewarded for his consistently tasteless patter. And despite the gross anti-white racism, violence and offensiveness of rap music, our arbiters of taste and decency  — in their wisdom — simply ignore it.

So why is it that while causing offence, in some cases, has become the greatest sin that can be committed, in others its practitioners are richly rewarded? The answer is that by trying to stamp out certain attitudes, political correctness creates a culture of public bullying.

By affording ‘victim groups’ immunity from the possibility of being prejudiced themselves, it gives them carte blanche to abuse and intimidate others.

For example, rappers are considered part of a protected black culture in a way that poor old Diane Abbott, who plays the mainstream political game, is not. Rappers, therefore, are beyond criticism and are given licence to abuse.

This bullying culture has become all-pervasive. Whether on Twitter (that new vehicle of the PC hate-mongers) or on reality TV, which makes money out of cynically breaking all boundaries of taste and decency, it all amounts to an invidious abuse of power.

To such hypocrisy and inconsistencies, however, our society has become (if  this is not an insult to the chorally impaired) tone deaf.

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The comments below have been moderated in advance.

All distractions keep politicians in a very well paid non-job. they are incapable of doing a proper job. PMQs shows we have nothing but a heap of Nodding, Braying ,Guffawing Donkeys. Each new intake must have lessons of keeping the culture of Westminster alive. They are a mixture of all the afflictions known to mankind. Singling out just one affliction is unfair.

“So, for example, the word ‘retarded’ was changed to ‘mentally handicapped’, which, in turn, also came to be considered insulting and so was replaced by ‘differently abled’. Similarly, ‘ethnic minority’ was bafflingly replaced by the new PC-speak term ‘minority ethnic’.”
Linguists refer to this as the euphemistic treadmill and Prof.Pinker (the Blank Slate: the modern denial of human nature) is rather good on it.
This hyper sensitivity only applies to offences against what the dominant cultural Marxists believe are protected groups. Comedians using obscenities, for instance, offend the more conservative members of the public but this is considered OK because conservatives are deemed a non-protected species. Likewise Christians can be offended without a great deal of risk from the Trendy Tendency.

As a sufferer of tourettes myself, I find the comment in severely poor taste. You expect such comments from comedians, even the general populace, but someone in a position of power such as the Prime Minister himself should have far more sense than to so carelessly use, what is to many a very distressing disorder, as an attempt to undermine his opposition.
I have often had people jokingly ask me “Do you have tourettes or something?”, and when I say yes, they’re always genuinely apologetic. Frankly it doesn’t bother me, but you expect better from your countries so called “leaders”. I also doubt Camerons apology is sincere, but merely a matter of PR.

David Cameron thinks everyone else is inferior and if someone dares to disagree with him then they must have something wrong with them ! Delusional or what !

One of the most obvious side effects of the corrosive “I`m offended” syndrome is “modern” comedians. A few years ago, the likes of Les Dawson etc. died out because of the so-called “offence” at lighthearted sexist or “racist” jokes. Now they have been replaced by “comedians” whose only way of raising a laugh is to use obscene language and frequent reference to bodily functions. Personally, I find this more offensive that any of the banter of the previous generation of comedians.

We never know who the faceless wonders are who decree what the “correct” term for an ethnic person is, but what we do know is that they thrive because we as a nation and our mealy mouthed politicians stay silent, cowed by fear of being labelled racist, sexist, homophobic, etc., etc., etc. Free speech does not exist in this country anymore, it has been replaced by designated “victims” of their gender, race, religion, sexual preference, etc., etc., etc. Now how do I become a “victim” so no-one can insult me?

The politically correct tidal wave that has hit this country is every bit as destructive as it is absurd and both freedom of speech and self expression have been left on their deathbeds. It is not by random that the definitions of what is offensive and what isnt changes on an almost weekly basis and now we are always looking over our shoulder at whatever we say just in case one of these feelings nazis takes it on themselves to be offended, but of course this is their design and their purpose, liberals want to control language bacause that is the way they control thought. in the case of recent events, it is not the words in and of themselves that are at fault but the intention behind it, most of which have been offhand throwaway comments, but in the case of many liberal thought police and many others, they always speak from a racial point of view, so by definition that would make them the racists. The monumental hypocrisy and language butchering of Britain today is staggering.

OK so Cameron slipped up……………… BALLERETTE’S SYNDROME !!

This obsession with bigotry in Britain today has its roots in the political lefts thought control mantra irrespective of context and we have Labours 13 years in office to thank for that.
The reality is that in every grouping of people whether by sex, sexual preference, colour or religion its still made up of a cross section of society as a whole. Within each group there will be a wide spectrum of personal attitudes from the easy going individuals unfazed or un-offended by any throw away derogatory remark to the sad individuals who see offense or bigotry in every negative comment.
The left in the shape of people like Ms. Abbott or some posters here have hijacked this political agenda to further their careers and self importance in the name of equality but forgot its a two way street as evidenced by many racist comments about white people that the majority ignore for the most part.
It appears that ONLY certain minorities can take offence but the rest of us don’t matter !

it appears to me, by the way things are going that we shall all have to walk around with heads bowed, speaking in a mumble that cannot be heard or not daring to speak at all for fear of upsetting SOMEONE. I feel sorry for Tourette’s sufferers but it also appears to me that the rest of us “suffer” from it, too_ I for one am embarrassed and insulted by the outbursts, because there seems to be little difference between those and the profanities less loose by some of the yobs around, so I cannot tell the difference. One thing I WOULD like to know is who taught the obscenities to the individual in the first place? If a Tourettes sufferer has never heard the f. word, they would not use it !!

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