A Tory MPs career lies in tatters tonight as the row over her use of a very outdated and frankly racist phrase "n****r in the woodpile". Totally unacceptable in this day and age even if it wasn't used in any "racist context" the use of the "n" word (unless it's by a rapper and even then...) is no longer acceptable.
Times and language have changed as have tastes and humour. This is not the first time, nor will it be the last that someone will get into trouble over their use of language. Carol Thatcher had her career wrecked for telling someone they looked like a golliwog. Rula Lenska caused outrage when she used the phrase "dirty lying arab" on Big Brother.
The argument over whether a golliwog is itself racist continues. Many people grew up with them and a West Indian friend of mine collected those badges issued by Robertson's Jam and didn't think much of it even now.
I'm no fan of political correctness but there are limits. Some language should rightly be condemned to the dustbin of history though I do not believe like some that literature should be revised from the time they were written in and there are both artistic and political reasons for their use within films and literature to express bigotry, but for general use no more.
Why Anne Marie Morris couldn't think of a more suitable phrase such as "fly in the ointment" for example is a mystery especially as she had to distance herself from words used by her husband on immigrants children. Some people are their own worst enemies.....
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