No offence nor apology, we’re from another age

The CPS and the judges are doing nothing to help the police enforce the law in this country. Folk are getting burgled, robbed, stabbed and killed and these people that seem to go in front of the court get nothing of a deterrent sentence to stop them or discourage anyone else from crime. HERE we go again! Anne Marie Morris suspended from the Conservative party because she used a ‘racist’ expression and Justin Trudeau apologising because he once ‘blacked up’ for an Arabian Nights themed fancy dress party.

The expression ’n*****r (although why I would not be allowed to write the word properly is beyond me – it is but a word after all) in the woodpile’ was used frequently by mine and my parents’ generation to describe someone who is putting the ‘cat among the pigeons’ (apologies to cat lovers and pigeon fanciers) or is being difficult.

My father used it a lot and there was not a racist bone in his body as there is not in mine.

Times have changed, I accept that, but a slip of the tongue still does not a bigot make and a simple apology from Ms Morris for any offence caused should have been sufficient, if indeed required at all.

Mr Trudeau’s

‘offence’ took place almost 20 years ago when he was a young man in a different age.

We might as well ask Al Jolson’s family or any surviving cast of the Black and White Minstrel Show to apologise for being racist.

In the sixties and seventies any number of television comedies used language that would not today be tolerated.

In It Ain’t Half Hot Mum, Windsor Davies’ character frequently called the concert party ‘a bunch of poofs’ and in Love Thy Neighbour, a white man’s black neighbour was often called Sambo.

In Fawlty Towers, Basil Fawlty was heard to call his wife a ‘cloth-eared bint’ and in ’Til Death us do Part’, Liverpudlians were Scouse gits.

But none of these examples was regarded as homophobic, racist or sexist in any way – they were just, well, funny.

Now, if one dares express reservations regarding gay marriage or, Heaven forbid, admit to finding women’s football lacking in speed, skill and excitement, they are immediately classed as homophobic or mysogynistic.

Each generation must live by its own rules however narrow, extreme, sensitive or intolerant they may be, but please do not expect those from previous generations to apologise for living by theirs.

Digging up the roads – for what reason?

NICE one. Three months ago Park Road, Crosland Moor, was resurfaced.

Now a section between College Street and Blackmoorfoot Road has been dug up.

For what reason? Forward planning comes to mind.