The City of my birth contains more than its fair share of deluded lefties who worship at the altar of political correctness while singing the praises of the great Money Tree in the sky. They may not be bad folks but they are fools and their sanctimony drips out in a most annoying fashion.
And so this week the Oxford University Press announced that henceforth it would not be showing images of pigs or sausages lest it offend Muslim readers. How many Muslims were offended by a picture of Peppa or Winnie the Pooh’s little pal? Sod all of course. The middle class lefties probably know very few Muslims. The Muslims live in the poorer bits of East Oxford, the folks at the OUP wouldn’t dream of crossing over Magdalen bridge and leaving leafy West Oxford.
Many of us find the writings of Polly Toynbee and Owen Jones offensive but we would not dream of banning them because we believe in free speech. It is a particular trait of the middle class liberal mind that free speech is seen to be so selective.
That the City that saw Cranmer, Latimer and Ridley burned for their beliefs, less than half a mile from the OUP, should throw up such nonsense is just sad. Sad is the word to describe this episode. Or perhaps silly. Or pathetic.